This is my Life
by TheBluePill
Summary: Sequel to Life in the Fast Lane. The band embarks on the next chapter of their lives, beginning with their year-long international tour. What could life have in store for this fun-loving family? AU Jori. Rated M for sexual themes, swearing, drugs, and alcohol.
1. Welcome to the City of No Regrets

**Disclaimer: Victorious and all of its associated copyrights are not my property and I stake no claim to them.**

**A/N: It's finally here, the sequel to Life in the Fast Lane! So, one thing I changed, Cat is _not_ pregnant. It was a detail I decided I didn't want later on, so that little bit has been removed from the plot of this story. One more thing to note, I don't know how quickly I'll be getting these chapters out, as I'm working on quite a few other stories since my mind seems to constantly wander. Other than that, things are the same, read on!**

* * *

"You guys ready?" Ben's voice echoed in Jade and Kevin's ears.

The siblings looked at each other and nodded, "Let's go."

"Ok, Jade you go left, Kevin go right."

The two took off in opposite directions, struggling to see through the fog and darkness.

"Jade take a right at the next fork and go forward, she's headed your way, get behind her. Kevin, loop around and go to the middle."

Jade crouched behind a stack of crates and listened carefully, she checked that her gun was ready to fire and hopped up.

"Kev, any sign of 'em?" Jade asked, breathless from running and the adrenaline.

"I'm getting close, I can hear her," Kevin responded quietly.

"Jade, watch your back! She's coming for you!"

She sprinted to the next turn and tried to lose her pursuer.

"Kevin, take a left and you'll be right behind her," Ben whispered.

Jade finally found some cover and listened, not hearing the heavy breathing and stomping of someone running after her, she figured she was safe, for now.

"Get her Kevin, before they see you. Damn! Nice shot. Ok, Jade it's all you now, finish this."

She smirked and turned around, slowly winding her way back. "She's in the bottom left corner, seems to be lost." _Not surprising._

Making sure she was out of Brad's line of sight, Jade crept up behind her target, lined up the shot and took a deep breath.

"Now!"

She fired just as her target turned around, hitting her in the chest, the force of the impact causing her to fly backwards into a pile of old tires.

"Whoa dude, that's a kill shot for sure," Ben laughed.

Jade smirked in victory, taking off her mask and walking towards her target, who was trying to recover from the blow.

"This is what we get for challenging Wests, huh?" She laughed breathlessly.

"Damn right."

She extended her hand, helping up her fallen opponent. Jade looked at the splattered paint on Tori's protective vest and grinned, "I think you're dead."

"A little bit," Tori laughed as she took off her mask as well, smiling as Jade gave her a kiss.

Kevin and Cat finally found them, not seeing any paint on Cat, she asked Kevin, "I thought…"

Cat turned around, showing a nice huge splatter of neon pink paint on her ass and both Jade and Tori cracked up.

"You shot her in the ass?!"

"You shot Tori in the boobs!"

Jade looked at Tori and laughed, "Yeah…I did."

"That shit hurts," Tori muttered.

"No kidding," Cat agreed.

Ben and Brad finally joined them down in the lobby, Tori immediately getting right in his face, "Why didn't you tell me she was right behind me?!"

"I didn't see her!"

"I told you man, Tori and Cat are good, but no one can go up against the Wests," Ben told him.

Brad shrugged, "I know that now."

Jade and Kevin grinned at each other, Kevin wrapping his arm around her and messing up her hair playfully.

"So, how do you guys wanna spend our last night in LA?" Ben asked as they walked out of the paintball arena.

"Pierce," they all said nearly in unison.

With a few drinks in their system, they were all on the dance floor; Kevin and Cat, Ben and his girlfriend Julia, Brad and his girlfriend Nikki, and of course Jade and Tori.

"You remember the first time we came here?" Jade whispered in Tori's ear.

Tori grinned wickedly, "Vaguely."

She turned around, pressing her back up against Jade's front, biting her lip as Jade trailed kisses all the way up her neck to her ear, gently biting and tugging on it. Jade maintained her grip on Tori's hips as the two grinded to the music.

After the song ended, Tori turned back around, kissing her passionately.

"You wanna get out of here?" Jade asked with a seductive smirk.

Tori nodded, winking as she turned around and headed out the door.

* * *

**Kevin's POV**

Watching my sister leave a bar with pure lust in her eyes never seemed like something to smirk about, but the fact she had her eyes locked on a certain brunette that seemed to make everything okay for her, simply made me happy that she wasn't miserable anymore.

"What're you looking at?" Cat asked, wrapping her arm around me and using me for support, as she got pretty wasted.

"Jade and Tori just left."

Cat rolled her eyes, "I swear if pregnancy was possible with those two, they'd be on one of those TLC shows about having a billion kids."

I laughed, "I wouldn't doubt it."

"Doesn't it bother you?"

"What?" I asked, confused.

She shrugged, "I dunno, usually big brothers get all protective and I-have-a-gun when their little sisters get into relationships."

I shook my head, "Nah. Jade's happy, Tori's happy. I finally got my sister back, having her smile and laugh again is worth it all."

"I don't know what you're talking about," she grunted.

I tilted my head at her in confusion and she continued, "I've known Jade since she was in first grade. This attitude is totally new for her, it's like Tori puts her in this perpetual state of nirvana whenever they're together."

"Having her not bring home a new fuck toy every night is nice too," I muttered.

"Bet those early morning interrogations were fun."

I laughed, "She never let anyone stay the night."

"Can I stay the night?"

"Oh...I suppose so," I said with a smirk, following her out to my truck.

The next morning I woke up early and saw Tori already up and laying on the couch, using her phone.

"Damn, she make you sleep on the couch?"

Tori looked up at me and grinned, "Nah, just woke up early."

I looked at my watch and laughed, "Only in this family would 9:45 be 'early'. Hey you want any breakfast?"

"Some coffee would be fine. Probably should get Jade some as well, and some pancakes."

I laughed, "I'll get the coffee."

* * *

**Tori's POV**

Kevin took over finishing up the pancakes as I went to wake up sleeping beauty's evil twin.

I crept into the room and closed the door, crawling in bed next to her and whispering in her ear, "Time to wake up baby."

She was barely awake as she answered, "Time for sex already?"

I laughed, "No, time for breakfast."

Jade pouted, "I wanted sex."

I placed a soft kiss on her jaw and got up, "Get dressed and come eat your breakfast and I might consider."

"I hate you," she muttered.

"I love you too babe."

A few minutes later Jade came out and headed straight for the kitchen.

"Hey kiddo, how you doing?" Kevin asked as he gave her her breakfast.

She grunted, "This bitch wakes me up at the ass crack of dawn and won't even give me sex. Like what the fuck, seriously."

Kevin and I both laughed, "It's 10:15 baby, not dawn."

"Shut up," Jade mumbled.

"You know, today's the big day," Kevin said with a smile, walking back to get some coffee for Cat, who had just woken up.

I sighed, "I'm gonna miss this place."

"Yeah, but think about all the cool stuff we'll see, not to mention playing huge concerts," Ben added as he walked into the kitchen, with Julia close behind.

I sat in Jade's lap and just enjoyed her absentmindedly rubbing my back as she ate her breakfast. "First show's in Vegas, right?"

Jade smirked, "Yep. You know, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas..."

"The city of no regrets!" Brad laughed, joining our party along with Nikki.

"Hell yeah. Man this is gonna be wicked awesome," Kevin said excitedly.

Cat wrapped her arm around Kevin, sipping her coffee, "I find it quite hilarious that when you guys finally go to Vegas, you can't just take home a random fangirl and kick her out later. Yes, Jade, I'm talking to you."

Jade shrugged, "I told you when I got engaged that I wouldn't need anybody else."

I turned around and gave her a kiss as Kevin clapped his hands together, "Alright guys, its 10:30 now, we've gotta be packed and out the door by noon, so get moving."

"Wanna take a shower?" Jade whispered in my ear.

I smiled and nodded, getting up to head into the bedroom.

* * *

**Kevin's POV**

After Tori left Jade finished eating and put her dishes away before going to her room as well.

"Ben, Brad, you guys good to go?" I asked the guys.

"Yeah, most of the stuff is sitting at the top of the stairs. I think Julia and Nikki had a few other things," Ben answered.

I still couldn't get over the fact those two were dating twins. The only way to tell them apart would be the charm bracelet Nikki always wore. If she didn't have that on, we'd all be screwed. Somehow Ben and Brad learned to tell them apart just by appearance. Their height, facial features, and length of slightly curly, light brown hair was all the same. At 26, they were around the same age as the rest of us.

"Well, you guys wanna get dressed and help me get this stuff packed?"

They nodded and we set off to our separate rooms to get changed for the day. Afterwards we got everything together and started packing it in the bus. Eventually Jade and Tori came out of their room and Jade helped us pack the last of our things.

I looked at my watch when we got back inside, "11:45, we got everything? Chargers, instruments, basic necessities?"

"By basic necessities you mean phones right?" Tori asked, much to the amusement of Jade.

"Yeah, sure. Brad you got all of Aero's stuff together and packed?"

"Yup, he's good to go."

Jade went and turned off the A/C as I set the security alarm, "Alright guys, let's go."

I locked the front door and we all piled into the bus.

* * *

**Jade's POV**

A few hours into the drive Brad, Tori, and I were working on the guitar parts of our songs. Brad was sharpening his skills as Tori practiced her solo.

Brad seemed to be having a problem with one of the sets, "Here, let me show you," I said, taking the guitar.

"You were doing it backwards, A5 then G5," I showed him.

"Yeah that does sound a lot better," he laughed.

He took back the guitar and tried for himself, grinning widely when he finished it.

"Didn't know you played guitar, Jade," Nikki said.

I looked at her with raised eyebrows; we'd never really talked much even though she and her sister moved in a week ago. "Yeah, it was the first instrument I learned."

"First?"

"Yep, drums, bass, and piano are also on my résumé."

Julia spoke up from her spot next to Ben, "How did this band composition come to be?"

I bit my lip as I thought about it, "Well at first it was just Kevin and I, at that time we didn't really know what parts we wanted to play, 'cause he knew drums and guitar, as did I. We recruited Ben later on; he's always been a good friend of the family. Brad was Ben's friend's little brother, he joined a while after Ben did. Then about a year ago we found Tori, one of our buddy's friends."

"When did that start?"

"Well, I moved in with Kevin after I finished high school, sometime during college was when we started. So I was about 21-22, and Kevin's two years older."

"It was pretty nice when Tori came along though, Jade was scary before that." Brad muttered.

"Not to mention the fact I didn't have to introduce myself to a new person every few days!" Kevin shouted from the driver's seat.

"Person? What, you aren't lesbian?" Nikki asked.

"I'm equal opportunity."

"And you?" She asked, looking at Tori.

"Gay as gay can be," Tori muttered, not even looking up from her guitar.

"Can you believe they slept together the first day they met?" Brad added.

Tori laughed, "Yeah, Jade got me drunk out of my mind and I ended up passing out, woke up in her bed."

I rolled my eyes, "Not my fault you were such a lightweight."

Ben looked at Julia, "This fight has been going on ever since it happened, I swear it's a conflict that never gets resolved."

I was sitting on the couch with my feet kicked up on the one opposite me, Tori was laying down with her head in my lap just practicing her sets.

Ben and Brad were on the other couch with their girlfriends, Aero was on the floor near Brad, and Kevin and Cat were up in the front seats.

"Hey Ben can you grab me a beer?" I asked him.

He handed me one out of the mini fridge right next to him. I popped it open and took a drink, only to have Tori steal it and chug half of it.

"Not a lightweight anymore," I laughed.

"Practice," she said, grinning at me.

"So when did you two get married?" Julia asked.

I smirked, "You guys are very inquisitive. It was about a month ago."

"And you're how old?"

I huffed angrily and Tori spoke up, "She's getting old. She's 28 and I'm 24."

Brad laughed, "Dude you're like, middle aged now."

"Shut up, Ben's fucking 31!"

"I age better," Ben said, running his fingers through his hair dramatically.

We all laughed at that. A few minutes later Kevin spoke up, "Hey guys, check out this sign!"

"Welcome to Las Vegas!"

* * *

**A/N: The few notes that Jade told Brad about are from the song _Paralyzer _by Finger Eleven. Name of this story comes from the Tubeway Army song _This is my Life_.  
**


	2. Old Friends

******Disclaimer: Victorious and all of its associated copyrights are not my property and I stake no claim to them.**

**A/N: Finally able to finish this chapter. Introducing someone new, so enjoy.**

* * *

**Tori's POV**

We decided to just to bar hopping that night and check out Vegas while we could. We spent the majority of our time at this club that was decorated to make it look like you were underwater. Jade and I were lounging on some of the booths in the back just talking to Kevin and Cat.

As Kevin was telling a story he suddenly stopped and a surprised look came across his face, "Well look who it is."

"Who?" Jade asked, not even bothering to open her eyes or sit up.

"Jade?" We heard a guy's voice nearby.

At that she immediately sat up and looked over to where the voice came from, and a huge smile crossed her face as she got up and gave him a hug, "Where the hell have you been?!"

He returned her hug, "Oh, you know, around. What are you doing here?"

"My band's playing at the Joint tomorrow night, now, what are _you_ doing here?"

He smiled, "Moved to Vegas a year or so ago. And what's this about a band?"

"Remember I told you Kev and I started a band a few years back."

"Ah, yeah I do remember. Say, who's this?" The guy asked, looking at me with a smile.

Jade smirked and sat back down next to me, wrapping her arm around me, "She's mine."

He laughed and sat down next to Kevin, "Yeah? What happened to-"

"Don't ask," Kevin said, interrupting him.

He looked confused but didn't push it, "So what's your actual name?"

"Tori, this is Beck, my asshat of a best friend. Beck, this is Tori, my wife."

"Wife?! Well, fuck me sideways. I've been gone too long."

Jade huffed, "Yeah you have."

"So? Let's see it."

We both gave him a confused look and he rolled his eyes, "The ring?"

Jade looked over at me and I lifted my hand up onto the table, showing him the ring.

"Damn, I can see my reflection in that thing!"

I did love my ring; one black diamond between two white ones on a gold band.

"What about yours?" He asked, looking at her.

Jade smirked at the chance to show off her ring, hers was nearly the same as mine, but was the opposite in design, one white diamond between two black ones, and one a white-gold band.

"Why am I not surprised?" He quipped lightly.

"You should know me by now."

"One would think. So what was the wedding like?" He asked, ordering himself a drink as the waitress walked by.

I rolled my eyes, "Do tell him, Jade."

She laughed, "Tori's still pissed 'cause I wore jeans and a leather jacket to it."

"You could've at least been _kind of _traditional!"

"Says the girl who wore a ripped up white dress with a fucking _black rose bouquet._"

Kevin smirked, "Wasn't very traditional but it was very _you._ Which is what made it cool."

"So I'm guessing you were the groom?" Beck asked Jade.

Jade shrugged, "For all intents and purposes, yeah."

"I think that epic stare down between Jade and Tori's dad was the funniest shit ever," Cat commented.

Jade and Kevin both burst out laughing, as Beck looked to me for an explanation. "After my dad walked me down the aisle, it came time to hand me over to Jade, and he gave her this death stare, that she gladly returned, and they stood there glaring at each other while I was just stood there rather awkwardly."

"Finally they both laughed and he handed Tori over to Jade and everything went on as normal, kind of, " Kevin finished.

"Most hilarious wedding ever," Cat added with a chuckle.

Beck grinned, "I bet it was. So what, are you Tori West now?"

"Nah, we both decided to keep our names the same for now due to all the promos and shit that have already gone out, people know Jade West and Tori Vega, not Jade Vega or Tori West."

"Fair enough I s'pose. But hey, I should get going, been great talking to you again. Before I go though, is your number still the same?"

Jade sighed, "No, long story. Give me your phone; I'll put my number in."

He handed her his phone and she typed in her number before handing it back, "You disappear again I'm gonna hunt you down and kill you, got it?"

"Understood," he replied with a smile, "It was nice meeting you, Tori."

I smiled back, "You too."

Jade and Kevin waved as he walked away, and we left to go back to the hotel after finding Ben, Brad, and their girlfriends.

After an unusually quiet ride back, most of us too tired for conversation, we dragged ourselves up to our rooms to retire for the night.

"So who was that? Besides your 'asshat of a best friend'?" I asked Jade as we were getting ready for bed.

"Honestly? Ex-boyfriend. Was just a friend 'til he played Houdini on me and disappeared."

I really couldn't help the jealousy at those words, "What happened with him?"

"Better off as friends. We made a pact back in high school that if our current relationships didn't work out we'd try out dating each other. It wasn't long 'til both of us said fuck it and we broke up mutually."

"And he just disappeared?"

"Yeah, suddenly stopped talking then didn't hear from him for almost 3 years. After being friends for over 10 years one would think I at least deserved an explanation, but apparently not."

I knew it was probably a bad question to ask, but the curiosity was going to kill me. "So how long were you with...her...anyway?"

Jade stopped what she was doing seemed to space out. She was quiet for a while, which made me think I really shouldn't have asked.

She finally sighed and answered, "Four years."

I'm pretty sure my jaw made acquaintances with the floor at her admission. "Four years?" I repeated, just shocked it had been that long, considering the way she used to be.

Jade finished changing her clothes and settled in bed before nodding, "Yeah. It's a long story."

I was hesitant to go any further but for some reason I just had to know, "Mind telling?"

"Guess not," she sighed as I lay down next to her.

She wrapped her arm around me and began the story, "Met her in college, it was my junior year and she got transferred into my AP English class, of course I was the only person not sitting next to somebody, for obvious reasons, so she was put next to me. At first I didn't give two shits about her and frankly wanted her gone, but I was more concerned about my class than some dimwit I was sat next to."

"For some odd reason," I laughed slightly at the 'we all know it's not odd at all' tone of her voice, "She soon found she was attracted to me, who the hell knows why. But after class one day she went and asked me out. I say that loosely because it was more like a nervous blabbering fool asked me if I wanted to get coffee. It doesn't take a genius to figure out I said yes because she had me at 'coffee.' I guess we just hit it off that day. Gotta say, I'm impressed with how well she hid the fact she's a raging psychopath that makes _me_ seem normal."

I took a moment to process what she had said, but still the questions I knew weren't appropriate kept gnawing at me, "Did you love her?"

Jade closed her eyes and sighed, "Kinda, it wasn't really an 'exclusive' relationship so to speak. Lots of breaks and cheating."

I sensed that she had more to say, so I just kept quiet. "She just made everything seem okay, she knew all the right things to say, it was nice to have someone just to fall back on. The fact she looked like Avril Lavigne didn't hurt either."

I rolled my eyes at the last part, "I'm not gonna go and say she wasn't hot but there is no amount of hotness than can cover crazy."

"I'm a _living_ example of that, right?" Jade said with a playful smirk.

I laughed, "Nah."

"What, I'm not hot?"

"You're not crazy."

"So you think I'm hot?"

"Among other things."

"What are those other things?"

I sat up and looked at her, "First...I want to know what your first impression of me was. You've never really told me."

She thought for a moment, "Well it's a given that right away I was nearly drooling over you. I also thought you were extremely talented once you actually played. As cliché as it sounds I felt something for you from the start, and that's kind of what made me push you away so much. I didn't want to get attached then have history repeat itself."

I frowned, "I'd never hurt you like that."

She sighed, "But the problem is I've heard that before, and the exact same person who said it to me ended up almost killing me more than once. But the funny thing is...despite the multiple times I've wanted to kill myself because of what she's done, not matter how much I loved her, I don't regret anything."

"Why's that?"

"Because if anything had gone differently, then things might not be as they are now."

"How so?"

"I might not have you."

I smiled and cuddled up to her, "Well, you're stuck with me, so get used to it."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," she whispered.

We were both quiet for a while before she spoke up quietly, "So what are those other things you think of me?"

I laughed, "I could go on forever."

"You better get started then."

"Do you want me to get all sappy and emotional or just say stuff like you're good in bed?"

"Am I really?"

I laughed and kissed her neck softly, "Very."

"But sure, get all sappy and emotional, I just want to know."

I thought about my words for a moment before starting, "Well, I literally nearly dropped my laptop the first time I saw a picture of you. I have never seen someone as beautiful and as sexy as you. The way you carried yourself, your attitude, it just captivated me. Your confidence is just beyond attractive and the way you barely give a fuck about anything is just awesome. For some reason I really love how you treat me like you own me. Call me a masochist, I probably am, but I like the idea that I belong to you. In not so many words, I love you. I mean, I married you for a reason."

I looked up at Jade to see her smiling at me. She leaned down slightly to kiss me, "You know... You still owe me something. Remember you lost that race."

I just grinned, "A debt owed must be repaid..."

* * *

**A/N: What is it with me and quotes? The very last line was kind of inspired by a bit of Astrid's dialogue from _Skyrim_. As always review and let me know your thoughts. Until next time...**


	3. Concerts, Social Media, and Drinking

******Disclaimer: Victorious and all of its associated copyrights are not my property and I stake no claim to them.**

**A/N: Decided to just make this one fun. Setting the stage for things to come.**

* * *

"Jade, you might wanna calm her down before she goes completely mad," Kevin whispered to his sister as the two watched Tori jump around in excitement before their first big concert.

Jade laughed, "Nah…"

"Hey Tor, you got a pick?" Brad shouted from where he was stood near their equipment.

Tori momentarily paused her ecstatic jumping to reply, "No, toss me one?"

"You guys are on in 1 minute!" The stagehand told them before disappearing behind a curtain.

"So, did anybody tell you guys who's attending tonight?" Kevin asked Jade and Tori.

"No?" Jade replied, confused.

Kevin smirked, "Dad's here, along with Tori's parents and sister."

"What?!" Tori shouted.

Before Kevin could reply, they heard a muffled voice out on the stage announcing them. As the guys headed out to the stage, Tori stayed back a moment as Jade was getting her mic, "I didn't know my family was here…"

Jade smiled and kissed her, "You'll be amazing, as always. Come on babe."

With Jade leading the way, the two joined the rest on the stage, enjoying the extra applause they got. As soon as they got out in front of the 20,000+ people in attendance, it finally hit Jade that the most they'd ever played in front of was about 500. She looked out on all of the people there to see them and she smirked, remembering that she's wanted this since she picked up her first guitar. Glancing back at Kevin, she saw he had the same proud smirk, and mouthed to her, 'We did it.'

Jade took off her jacket and tossed it somewhere behind her after realizing that it was way too hot to wear it.

"So about…roughly 2 minutes ago I was made aware of who all's in attendance tonight," Jade started as the rest of the band got their instruments ready. "One of whom is mine and Kevin's Dad. See, we didn't always have the greatest relationship with him, but he's done everything he could to make amends with us. Letting him back in was one of the best decisions we ever made. Music has always been an outlet for us, me especially, and we decided to take that rollercoaster of a childhood we had and make something of it. So Dad, this one's for you."

A while after they made amends with their father, Kevin and Jade sat down to write a song about their rough childhood, and how it got better for them later in life. It was definitely one of the most emotional songs they'd ever written, and it was one of their favorites. Jade glanced over at Tori and nodded to her to start.

Once the song was about half over, she finally saw her father standing in the audience next to her wife's family, and was pleased with the smile he had on his face.

After that song, Jade decided to get back into their usual groove with one of their more mosh-pit-appropriate songs. About 5 or 6 songs later, she thought up one that they'd never played live before, and it had a rather difficult solo Tori hadn't had much practice with.

She decided to hype up the audience by telling them they'd be playing a song never before heard. She looked at Tori with an, 'Are you okay with this?' expression, and she nodded. At Tori's solo, Jade backed off and watched with a proud smile as she played it perfectly.

"Alright guys, this is the last encore of the night, how about the only romance song we've ever written?!" Jade asked after the previous song ended. The rest of them knew which song she was talking about, as it was literally the only romance song they'd ever written or played.

"While they set up for this song, I'll ramble on a bit more. So this one is one I wrote soon after meeting someone…pretty special. Like I said before, music has always been an emotional outlet for me, and ever since I met this girl, it's been a lot easier to make my songs actually mean something, and not just be full of hate and anger. So without further ado, grab someone to make out with, 'cause you're gonna need 'em…"

Tori smiled at Jade and started their last song of the night. As the song was nearing the end, Jade slowly and subtly moved closer to Tori. By the end of it, they were standing face-to-face. Tori set down her guitar and turned back around to hug Jade, "That was amazing."

Luckily for the audience, they had unintentionally positioned themselves so it was easy to get perfect pictures and video of the kiss that followed. As the guys joined them up at the front of the stage the entire audience erupted in thunderous applause. Kevin shared a look with Ben and Brad and they all 3 laughed and clapped as well. Grabbing the mic, he diverted some of the attention off the girls, "Thanks for coming tonight guys! Goodnight!"

Back stage Jade went straight for her bottle of water to soothe her now aching throat as Kevin patted her on the back, "That was awesome, kiddo."

Finally their families joined them backstage and congratulated them.

"Hey Jade, when'd you get that tattoo?" Trina asked, referring to the new tattoo on Jade's left shoulder.

Jade smirked and looked over at her wife, "You wanna explain?"

Tori rolled her eyes as she remembered a few nights before they left LA, they'd all gone out to have some fun before they had to take off, and they happened to pass a tattoo parlor. "I made a deal with Jade that if she got a tattoo of my choice, I'd get one of her choice," Tori told her sister and the rest of the people who were listening.

"Oh god, what did you get?" Trina groaned.

"Well, Jade's, as you can see, is a nice pretty rose with some skulls around it; I thought it fit her well. Mine…well…I love it too."

Tori lifted up her tank top to show the dark looking rose/vine design on her left side that extended from her pants up to her breasts, "It goes further down my leg too."

"To like…here," Jade added, pointing to about halfway down Tori's left thigh.

Trina narrowed her eyes, "How do you know that?"

"I'd tell you but her father's standing right there."

Tori playfully punched Jade's side and laughed, "For one sh0e was there when I got it."

Once Mr. and Mrs. Vega were engrossed in a conversation with Mr. West, Jade added, "That and I married her. I think even in the most religious of cultures, I'm allowed in her pants at this point."

"Are you insinuating that you actually waited until marriage?"

Jade just held a straight face, "No."

Tori groaned and ran her fingers through her hair in frustration, and Kevin decided to jump in, "Show her the other ones."

Jade held out her left wrist, and Tori held out her right, to show the matching tattoos they got.

"Okay, the V and J I get, but what are the numbers?" Trina asked.

"Mine has a J and the date we met, and Jade has a V along with the date we got married," Tori explained.

"Why opposite hands?" Trina continued, not connecting the dots.

Kevin laughed and pulled out his phone, "I'll show you." He then showed Trina a picture he took of Jade and Tori walking down the street in Vegas, holding hands and both using their phones. "Having it so when they held hands they would kind of match up was the original intent, but considering they're both obsessed with their phones, it works that way too, since Jade's right handed and Tori's left handed."

"Hey guys, you've got an interview in 10," their quasi-manager Joey told them before disappearing again.

"Never would've pinned you for the sappy type, Jade," Trina commented.

Jade laughed, "Have you met my wife?"

"Once or twice."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Tori snapped.

"That you're a sap," Jade deadpanned.

The girls' parents finally noticed the bickering going on and decided to intervene. Mr. West hugged his daughter, "That was a great performance. I'm so proud of you and your brother."

After congratulating his daughter, David looked at Jade with a stern glare, which she returned, as usual. He finally cracked a smile and gave her a hug, "That was pretty impressive; you've got one hell of a voice. So, have you been taking care of my little girl?"

"Dad," Tori whined.

Jade just hugged Tori, "Always."

"Come on kids, we got an interview to do," Kevin said.

They bid farewell to their parents and headed to the makeshift interview room. At the table, Kevin said in the middle, with Ben and Brad on his right and the girls on his left. Of course they did nothing to hide their relationship, as Jade blatantly had her arm around Tori, who was also holding her hand.

Once they were situated, the first reporter spoke up, "I suppose we can start with the elephant in the room here. It was made obvious to most everyone that there's some type of relationship between your front woman and lead guitarist, after seeing the two kiss on stage. What's going on there?"

"Does it matter?" Jade grumbled.

"For curiosity's sake."

Tori gently rubbed Jade's leg to calm her down, knowing she was already getting annoyed, "Yes, there's a relationship between us, what more needs to be said?"

"Hasn't it deterred you any given the fact you're two women?"

Jade narrowed her eyes, "Is it supposed to?"

Before the reporters could respond, Tori added, "No, it hasn't. We're very aware that our relationship doesn't fit in the little tiny box of normality most people have, and that's fine. On this tour we've been hoping to raise a bit of awareness for LGBT issues such as the hate we'll undoubtedly get after this, but that's something we're willing to deal with if it means helping other people."

"What's on your agenda in that respect?"

"Jade and Tori have been working on a new song that we're planning on debuting in New Orleans in a few weeks, about being different in this day and age. We get that we're just five friends in a world of billions, but we want to make enough of a difference that people won't have to be afraid of being themselves anymore," Kevin responded.

"What's the content of this new song?"

Tori looked to Jade as if to say, 'You wanna answer that?'

"Given that we're from Los Angeles, we've never really had a lot of problems in that certain respect, given how liberal California is. But we know that there's places in the world where this kind of behavior warrants horrible punishments. The song's about being a teenager and coping with realizing that you aren't going to live a 'normal' life. It's about the bullying a lot of kids go through, and about no matter how horrible things may get, there's always a reason to hold on."

"So what romantic involvements does this band have?"

Kevin grinned, "Well, good luck ever splitting up these two," he started, nodded at Jade and Tori, "As for the rest of us, I think it's fair to say that we're taken as well."

"Where's your next show?"

"We're playing in Vegas one more time the day after tomorrow, and then we're going to Reno," Kevin answered.

"Jade and Kevin are siblings, yes?"

The two nodded and they continued, "About the first song you played, for your father, what's the story there?"

"The lyrics say most of it," Jade said.

"Who's the main songwriter for this band?"

"Jade is. Though the rest of us collaborate sometimes. Recently it's been Jade and Tori, but Jade's always been better at it than Ben, Brad, or I."

"What instruments does she play?"

Tori laughed, "Better question would be, what instrument can't she play. Before I got here she was the lead guitarist, but she's also great at bass, drums, and piano."

"So why'd you settle for just being the vocalist?"

"Well, Kev's best at drums, Ben is an incredible bassist, and Tori and Brad cover the guitarist positions very well. I like singing, and the guys can't sing to save their lives, so there you go."

Their manager spoke up from the corner of the room, "Last question, they need to get some rest."

"What exactly is the relationship between Tori and Jade?"

"You'll find out eventually," Jade replied offhandedly.

* * *

The next day they were lounging around their hotel room, Beck and his current girlfriend also in attendance, they were laughing about how the news was already out.

"_Social Revolution's front woman Jade West kisses lead guitarist Tori Vega after their first show at 'The Joint' in Las Vegas during their first international tour_," Beck read one of the many headlines from a magazine he picked up on the way over there.

He showed them the picture on the inside also showing the "steamy lip lock."

"Can't take you anywhere, kiddo," Kevin laughed.

Beck chuckled, "Oh that's not all, listen to this. _'Los Angeles natives Jade West and Tori Vega of the new breakout band Social Revolution share a steamy lip lock on the stage of Las Vegas' 'The Joint' after their show on Saturday night. In an interview after the show, the two confirmed there was a relationship, but refused to elaborate. Though a clear answer was never given, similar rings on both women's fingers may be a hint that the two got hitched prior to the tour.'_ Man they sure are observant!" He also showed them a close-up picture of said rings that the magazine published.

"Let's check some more headlines, shall we?" Brad asked, pulling out his phone.

"No!" Tori snapped, causing Jade to laugh.

Though Brad put his hands up innocently, they suddenly heard Jade's voice coming from Kevin's phone, as well as thunderous applause a few moments later, "Dude it's on YouTube!"

"Oh my god," Tori muttered, burying her head in her hands.

"Here, not everyone is so ignorant," Beck started, "_Through an interview with a friend close to the band, it was confirmed that Jade West and Victoria Vega of 'Social Revolution' were indeed married about a month prior to their tour. In their interview after the show, drummer Kevin West hinted that all members of the band were currently in relationships, crushing any dreams of their star-struck fans. It is assumed that Kevin is involved with a close friend of the band, Catarina Valentine, and bassist Benjamin Fitzgerald and rhythm guitarist Bradley Patton are involved with twins Julia and Nicole Hayes, respectively. Though West and Vega aren't the first members of a band to be openly gay, they are the first to have an openly same-sex relationship consisting of members of the same band. Though there was quite a bit of backlash from homophobic talk-show hosts today, fans and LGBT activists took to social media to praise the two for their bravery._"

Jade scoffed, "Fuck's sake, I was just kissing my wife and people lose their shit over it."

"You gotta keep in mind this is the first time this kind of thing has happened, people are gonna blow it out of proportion," Beck reminded her.

"Man your guys' stories are _everywhere_," Brad said, scrolling through news headlines on his phone.

"Only a matter of time til everything's out there," Kevin muttered.

"Well, I need a beer," Jade said as she got up off the couch.

Kevin hopped up too, "I got an idea. Let's have a little competition and film it."

"What kind of competition?" Jade asked.

He grinned, "Beer shotgunning."

Jade smirked as well, "Fuck yeah."

They had Beck filming as they decided Ben and Brad would go first. They had a 6 pack of 24 oz beers to shotgun. "We got our timers ready?" Kevin asked.

"Yep, we're ready," Tori said.

"Aight Jade you time Ben, Tori you time Brad. On your marks guys."

They both stabbed holes in the beer cans, tipping them back and popping open the tab. Brad was first to slam down his empty can, followed by Ben.

"Holy shit, what were those times?" Kevin laughed.

"Ben got 11.6 seconds," Jade said.

"And Brad got 10.8," Tori added.

Cat grinned, "Let's go West, you and me."

Kevin grabbed two more beers and the knives, handing one of each to Cat, "Time me, sis."

"Oh man I'm gonna puke," Brad muttered, soon after vomiting right into the sink.

"Real sexy, Brad," Jade laughed.

He grinned and made the 'call me' gesture. Finally Kevin and Cat took their turns shotgunning. This time, Kevin was first, and Cat was second.

"Kev was 6.3 seconds, and it looks like Cat got 8.2, nice one."

"Whew, last 2 beers guys, main event, here we go," Kevin said with a grin.

Jade and Tori handed their phones to Kevin and Cat so they could time them, as Jade muttered, "I'm not getting beer on this shirt, and don't you dare get beer on that shirt either."

Tori rolled her eyes, "This is what I get for wearing your clothes."

"Hey now, I'm a classy motherfucker, I'm not getting beer on my shirts," Jade replied as she and Tori took off their shirts so they were just wearing the tank tops that were underneath.

"So classy…"

Jade smirked and elbowed her playfully before grabbing the two remaining beers, handing one to Tori, "So this determines who's better in the bedroom, right?"

Tori frowned, "No."

"Well at least everybody can see who's best at shotgunning a beer in this band, because it's obviously going to be one of you two," Kevin laughed.

"Ready babe?" Jade said.

"Yep, you guys ready?" Tori asked Kevin and Cat.

"Good to go."

Kevin looked at the camera, "True test of a relationship, if it can last through one losing at a beer shotgun."

Jade smirked and kissed Tori, grabbing her knife and stabbing a hole in the can, as Tori did the same. They both tipped it back and popped open the tab at the same time.

Jade threw down her can first, followed closely by Tori. The guys were all cheering, a chorus of "Holy shit, did you see that?!" From all of them.

"Holy fuck guys, alright alright, Jade, you got 3.7 seconds, and Tori got 4.2," Kevin told them, still grinning widely.

"There you go, women who can shotgun a 24 oz beer in less than 5 seconds, and they're both taken," Beck was interrupted as they both burped extremely loud. "Classy as fuck too."

"I can probably still drive right now," Jade laughed.

"Jade West, best beer shotgunner of Social Revolution!" Kevin cheered.

Jade grabbed some more beers out of the fridge, popping off the tops and handing one to Tori, "Here's to victory," she said, toasting with Tori.

"Here's to being hungover," Tori muttered.

"Fun fact for you guys," Jade said, looking back at the camera, "Tomorrow morning won't be the first time Tori's woke up next to me hungover as fuck. First time was actually the first night we met."

"I didn't sleep with her!" Tori snapped.

Jade smirked, "No this lightweight bitch was beyond tipsy after a fucking lemon drop!"

"And I was out like a fucking light after you gave me some vodka, woke up in a room I'd never seen before and was like shit. Good thing was we both had clothes on so I knew I didn't sleep with her."

"That time."

"You get out, now," Tori growled.

"You love me," Jade replied with a smirk.

Tori raised up her left hand, "I'm obligated to!"

Jade raised a skeptical eyebrow and took Tori's beer from her, setting both on the nearest table, before grabbing Tori's waist and kissing her.

Tori finally pulled away, out of breath, and looked at Beck, "You might wanna turn that off."

The next morning Kevin posted a picture of the two completely knocked out on their bed, titled "The Champions."


	4. Seeing the World

******Disclaimer: Victorious and all of its associated copyrights are not my property and I stake no claim to them.**

******A/N: This chapter is going to cover the span of about 7-8 months, following the previous chapter by about two months. Approximate times between sections and the place they're at will be labeled.**

* * *

_**Miami, Florida**_

"Vega you got a string on your ass."

"Why are you looking at my ass?"

"Is that a rhetorical question?"

"It should be, shouldn't it?"

"Yeah, turn around."

"Turn around, bend over, put your hands on the wall and don't say anything…" Tori muttered, turning around and putting her phone in her back pocket.

"It's okay baby, I'll be gentle," Jade whispered back, grabbing onto Tori's belt and pulling the string out of the back of her pants.

"Oh god, slower, slower!" Tori groaned.

"Let's just get it over with and you'll be okay."

She whined dramatically, "Can we cuddle now?"

"You know, if anyone heard you two and didn't _see_ you, they'd probably unzip," Kevin said, laughing at their antics.

"That could be said about the majority of the conversations we have," Jade pointed out.

"We tend to be inadvertently kinky most of the time," Tori added as she pulled her pants back up from where Jade had accidentally slightly pulled them down.

Jade smirked and draped her arm over Tori's shoulders, "The other times we do it on purpose."

"Hey guys, check this out," Brad called out to them, pointing to a magazine stand.

Jade pulled out one of the magazines and read aloud, "_'Social Revolution debuts their new LGBT pride song __**"I'll Love You Anyway"**__ at their concert in New Orleans. Tori Vega joins Jade West up at the front of the stage to sing the duet, and fans rave about how well the two's voices go together. The concert was concluded with drummer Kevin West and rhythm guitarist Brad Patton tossing their drum sticks and guitar pick into the audience as the two girls kissed on stage, a further 'in your face' statement to their critics.'_"

"I do like 'in your face' statements…" Tori quipped, looking at the magazine over Jade's shoulder.

They settled down in an outdoor café, taking up two tables and pushing them together so all 8 of them could talk. Tori put her feet up on Jade's lap and both took off their sunglasses, putting them on top of their head.

"Man, we got so much feedback from like, everyone after that concert," Kevin told them as he scrolled through his phone.

Brad nodded, "Lotta people want interviews too. Dude, check this out! We got an offer for a quarter million dollars if we do a concert in London!"

"Quarter million? You sure about that?" Jade asked skeptically, sipping her Pepsi.

He showed the phone to her and she nearly spit out her drink all over him and the phone.

"_Hello my name is blah blah blah…I work for Mason Barlow of the United Kingdom's Music Venues blah blah blah…We would like to make an arrangement for a series of shows sometime in late September for the Griffith Stadium in London for an approximate payout of **250 grand**. Blah blah blah…please note this number is subject to change based on your media attention in the meantime._" Jade read out loud.

"Back when we were playing at Pierce we'd get 10 grand _if _we were lucky. 250 grand is like, an insane amount," Ben mumbled, looking through their band's business email. "Got some offers for a few interviews and recording contracts too."

"So if we continue to blow up the media, we'd be exceeding 250 grand for one concert?" Tori made sure she understood.

Ben nodded, "There's the 250,000 one in London and a few other places offering 100,000 or more."

Cat sighed and leaned back in her chair, "So we're gonna be on the road for over a year?"

"We'll at least be out for the original duration of the tour, but beyond that I'm not sure. We'd have to rearrange the schedule a bit if we were gonna fit in that extra concert in London, not to mention the other offers we got," Kevin told her, noticing her crestfallen expression but not really sure how to comfort her.

Jade and Kevin exchanged a look that nobody aside from Tori caught. "We'll just wait out this tour and tack on extra dates in between recording for the album. I know you, Nikki, and Julia don't particularly want to travel so much, so we'll cut it as short as we can. Just one or two of us can go, if need be."

"It's not really the traveling…" Julia started.

"It's just the stress of it all," Nikki finished, knowing what her sister was thinking.

"We'll figure something out, don't worry about it. A lot of these offers seem to be for Jade and Tori anyway, features, interviews, duo concerts, shit like that," Brad told them, wrapping his arm around Nikki.

Tori put her hands up and did a little dance in her seat, "Bow down to the almighty lesbians."

Kevin chuckled, "Hey, people have already made fan videos of you two."

"Let me see," Tori said, holding out her hand for his phone which he handed to her. Jade scooted her chair over and leaned on Tori's shoulder to watch as well.

They both noticed immediately that the background music for the video was the song Jade had written for Tori near the beginning of their relationship. A lot of it was pictures of the two along with a few short clips of them, of course all being of their cheesy and/or affectionate moments. After watching the video they decided to check out the comments.

_**These two are beyond adorable.**_

_**Obviously fake, a publicity stunt to gain more attention. Doubt they're actually in a relationship**_

_**is it true that they're married?**_

_**Look at the picture 0:25 you can see both of their wedding rings they are married**_

"This is kind of amusing." Jade leaned back as Tori continued to look.

"There's tons of controversy going around the media about whether or not you two are legit, so don't be surprised by it," Kevin reminded them, taking his phone back from Tori.

* * *

_**2 months later, NYC**_

**Jade's POV**

"As stated here, your contract would entail you to remain in London for a week, playing at the Griffith Stadium for 4 out of the 7 days."

Kevin looked at the contract, passing it over to Ben, "And this would start when, exactly?"

"It's my understanding that you have shows to play in Dublin, Liverpool, and Birmingham in the next two weeks. We'd like to solidify your place in the following week to play in London."

"Wouldn't 3 weeks be a bit late to announce a concert?" Tori asked.

The man we were talking to, a representative for Mason Barlow, simply nodded, "Yes, but in anticipation of your potential agreement to the offer, we made enough tickets available for the concerts in Liverpool and Birmingham that if needed could be transferred to the shows in London. We have extras that we will put up last minute if you decline, so we can completely sell out all shows if possible."

"The offer's great, it really is, but the big question I've got to ask," Ben started, continuing to read through the contract, "What'll be the final payout?"

He took out a copy of the contract to show us, flipping to one page and pointing at one section, "The approximate amount would be anywhere from 2 to 5 million dollars. Though by our estimation, 2 million will be the absolute lowest, and the 5 million is subject to change depending on how many tickets are sold, along with concession and merchandise sales."

At those words my eyes widened and I immediately sat up, "2 _million_?"

"Bro you're saying we'll be getting loads of money and saying it in a British accent, my happiness is through the roof at the moment, please do not be shitting me," Brad nearly whined.

"Mason's offer is legitimate, I can assure you. By agreeing, you'd be obligated to play 4 days in the week, for at least 3 hours, not including any encores you perform, but of course you will most likely be paid extra for those. The shows would start at roughly 8:30 in the evening and last until the concert is concluded. Two autograph signings are also in the deal, at specific times of your choosing. The amount of commission towards our company and others is listed here. This will be all-expenses paid performance, which includes hotel visits, food, gas, anything that you spend money on here within reason will be paid for by UK's Music Venues, more details about that are here if you'd like to read over that. We will also be doing a photo-shoot for the band at some point during the week, as we'll be sponsoring the production of your debut album, and the pictures will go towards the cover of your album and any promotional items we release."

We were glad he was reviewing the fine print with us, and we all exchanged looks as we thought about it. Ben continued to try to find anything that would backfire on us, but was unable to see anything obvious. Finally he looked at Kevin and nodded and Kevin looked back to Mason's assistant, "Alright, we'll do it."

He smiled and nodded, "Excellent. We'll need signatures from all five of you agreeing to all the terms listed and any expenses will be discussed at a later date once we get confirmed numbers for you."

We took turns passing the contract around and signing it in the necessary places before handing it back. As he checked to make sure everything was signed appropriately, I asked, "Do you know what the recording schedule will be like for the official album?"

"A lot of the recording should be in Los Angeles, or at least nearby. Some of the recording may have to be done in London, however."

I nodded and he shook our hands, telling us he'd be in contact and we were dismissed. We kept our cool until we got out of the building, and then completely lost our shit in the parking lot.

"2 million dollars, guys! 2 fuckin' million!" Brad shouted, jumping all over Ben and Kevin.

Ben's usual calm, cool, and collected façade was completely shattered as he was acting like a small child who just heard they could have candy for dinner, "I heard him man, this is insane!"

Kevin picked me up and spun me around, "We made it, kiddo! It all finally paid off!"

* * *

_**3 weeks later, London, UK**_

"Dude…I've never seen a Royal Guard in person, this is so cool!" Brad exclaimed as we walked past one of the royal residences. Originally being from the UK, Julia and Nikki had been showing us around the cities we visited in England specifically, telling us all kinds of neat things. Currently we were touring London on our way to go to the stadium for our sound check. Since London was freezing cold, we all had on heavier jackets and a few of us were wearing beanies.

I chuckled and nodded towards one of the guards, "Bayonet on a machine gun, I love it. Where can I get one?"

"I don't think those are legal in California," Kevin casually rained on my parade.

I shrugged and sipped from my coffee, "Anything's legal if you don't tell anyone about it."

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Tori had an amused smile on her face but was trying to hide it. I guessed she remembered our conversation quite a while back about speeding. "Babe can I have some of your coffee? I'm cold."

I frowned, "I'll give you my jacket but I'd rather keep my coffee."

She gave me her puppy dog eyes that she knows I can't ever resist and I just groaned, handing the coffee to her. "Thank you," she said, kissing my cheek.

"Tori, relish the fact that you are the one person in existence who can get Jade to willingly share her coffee," Cat told her.

Tori squeezed my hand, "I consider myself lucky for much more than just that."

I leaned over and kissed the side of her head, mumbling "Tori knows she's got me completely whipped."

"Hey guys, look," Julia interrupted, pointing down the road, "It's Big Ben."

"Babe I'm right here," Ben stated, confused, but grinning when Julia gave him a 'really?' look.

"Even though you practically set yourself up, I'll skip the size jokes just because I like you."

Tori finally handed me back my coffee as she laughed, "That's the greatest thing about lesbians. Size never matters."

"All's fair in love and tits," I agreed.

Brad nudged Ben teasingly, "Thinkin' she's trying to say you should hit up the Viagra."

"His generic form of Viagra is me."

"Damn," Kevin mumbled, looking at his watch, "We almost went 5 minutes without a sexual conversation."

Cat giggled, "I'll call Guinness and see if we can get this put in the new record book."

"So Hayes, what else is on the way?" I asked the twins.

"The stadium is only a few blocks away, there isn't much between here and there," Nikki answered.

Tori grunted, "So I can unthaw myself soon?"

"Maybe."

"Don't worry baby, I know how to keep you warm," I whispered in her ear, making her smack my shoulder as she tried to hide a blush.

"Shut up."

* * *

_**2 weeks later, Venice, Italy**_

**Tori's POV**

"I think this is the only place we've been to so far that's been more beautiful than Paris," Cat called out, spinning around to look at everything around us.

"Even Paris wasn't this beautiful at night. This place is like, magic," I agreed, marveling at our surroundings.

We were all walking along one of the canals in the middle of Venice, hand in hand with our partners. I noticed however, even with the amazing serenity of the city, Jade and Kevin both seemed to be on edge, but more so with Kevin. We came to a bridge crossing over the water and stopped in the middle of it to look over the sides and enjoy the scenery at Cat's request.

I smiled and kissed Jade as she stood behind me with her arms around my waist. After I pulled away she glanced beside her and put one finger to her lips, signaling me to be quiet. I looked over tried to figure out what she wanted me to be quiet for. Ben and Brad were standing on the other side of the bridge looking the opposite way as us; Kevin and Cat were on the same side as us as Cat seemed to still be mesmerized by the city.

Kevin looked over at his sister, almost in silent question, and she just nodded, further confusing me.

As Cat leaned on the stone rail of the bridge, Kevin gently tapped her shoulder to get her attention. She happily turned around and kissed him, raving about the pretty lights reflecting on the water. He smiled back and quietly said something to her, taking her hand and getting on one knee.

I looked back at Jade in shock, seeing she was just watching with a slight smile, holding me a little tighter. We both watched as Kevin continued talking to her, though I couldn't quite understand what he was saying, Cat held her other hand over her mouth as she just stared at him. With his free hand, he pulled a small box out of his pocket, opening it and putting it in her hand, looking up at her.

"Marry me?"

Our friends on the other side of the bridge finally noticed what was going on, the girls smiling at them and the guys just watching with curiosity. I laced my fingers with Jade's as we waited in silence for Cat's response.

She finally smiled and pulled him back up to a standing position before jumping into his arms and kissing him, "Yes!"

The crowd of people who had stopped to watch the scene started cheering ecstatically at the response. I was practically jumping up and down in excitement as Jade had a huge smile on her face.

"I should've proposed in Venice, that worked like a charm," Jade whispered to me.

"She's been waiting for him to ask, being in Venice is just a bonus. Besides, you say that as if I said no to you," I quietly replied, turning my head slightly to kiss her.

Jade sighed and buried her face in my neck, "He's been freaking out about this for weeks. I'm so happy for him."

Kevin and Cat eventually turned towards us, both with wide smiles. Jade caught her brother halfway in a hug as Cat came over to me, gushing about the proposal as if I weren't standing right there.

A few hours later we were back in our hotel rooms, in the usual split-up, two 2 bedroom rooms with a living area of sorts. Jade, Kevin, Cat, and I were sharing one room, and Ben, Brad, Julia, and Nikki were in the other.

I had changed my clothes into my sleeping attire and was curious what Jade was doing, as she still hadn't come into the room. I ran my fingers through my hair to tame the slight mess left over from changing and figured I was decent enough with just my faux-sleepwear. The real sleepwear being nothing, but that's not exactly decent.

I peeked out the bedroom door and saw Kevin lounging on one side of the couch with Jade on the other, both sitting up slightly so they could talk better.

"I never thought we'd end up like this to be honest," Kevin said.

Jade laughed slightly, "Me neither. I'm married and you're engaged. Seems like just yesterday we were picking up chicks together."

"It's crazy how things have changed in the past couple years. I never thought I'd ever get married, and I thought it was even less likely that you'd go for that kind of thing. It's still kind of amazing to me, actually."

"Why so difficult to believe?"

He shrugged, "Not really difficult, just unexpected. I've never thought negatively of you but you always seemed the type to not tie yourself down to someone. Like before you'd brag to whoever you were dating at the time about the person you hooked up with the previous night."

"They never seemed to be impressed for some reason..." She mumbled as if it was truly puzzling to her. "But I'd have to agree with you, I didn't think I'd ever get to this point."

I raised an eyebrow and leaned on the doorframe, crossing my arms. "Women, right?" He scoffed, making her laugh. "As crazy as it is though I'm happy with it."

She nodded, "Yeah, it's been really weird confiding in someone other than you after 26 years of it just being you and I. I think this is one of the best things that could've happened honestly."

I felt kind of bad about eavesdropping but I was just too curious to leave now. I heard the sound of what seemed to be Kevin drinking the last of his beer, setting the can on the coffee table. "Probably right. Almost feel like you got the better end of the deal though since your girl is in our band."

"I do have one up on you there, don't I? I love having Tori in the band, as much as we poke fun at each other, really nothing makes me happier than when we're writing or playing music together."

"Tori's had a positive influence on your music, that's for damn sure. She seems crazy about you, too, which makes me happy. You deserve someone like her."

Jade groaned loudly, falling into his lap, "What happened to me, Kev? I used to be all badass and apathetic, now look at me."

He poked her sides, making her squirm to get away, "You fell in love, kid. 'Sides, she's more like your sidekick than your kryptonite these days."

"Is it normal to love someone this much?" She mumbled so quietly I almost couldn't hear.

"No," he responded curtly, "It's not normal, it's very unusual and something you should hold onto. You're awesome, but you're not going to find someone like her again."

I stepped back into the room and closed the door after that, figuring it would just be downright disrespectful to continue listening. I went to the bathroom to wipe off my makeup before undressing again and getting in bed. I buried my face in the pillow sighing heavily. Jade was out talking to Kevin for at least another 10 or 15 minutes. I was almost asleep when I finally heard her enter the room, closing the door behind her. She must've figured I was asleep, as she was very quiet and didn't turn on any lights, even waiting until the bathroom door was closed before turning that one on. A minute or two later Jade left the bathroom. Not noticing that I was awake, she began undressing.

"Dance for me," I said to her, grinning when she looked over at me, surprised.

She laughed and finished undressing, laying on top of me under the sheets and kissing me. I wrapped my arms around her and rolled us over so I was on top.

"I love you," I whispered, looking into her eyes.

Jade smiled, her hands resting on my lower back, "I love you too. Always."

**Kevin's POV**

I was slowly nudged out of my sleep by a hand shaking my shoulder.

"Babe get up, I smell food," Cat urgently whispered to me, continuing to try to get me up and eventually succeeding.

I chuckled tiredly and got up to throw on some shorts and a muscle shirt, stretching as I followed her out into the kitchen. My sister and her wife were standing by the stove, both wearing t-shirts with the sleeves cut off and a huge portion of the sides as well, along with what seemed to be just underwear, but was probably incredibly short shorts, Jade also had on one of our band's snapbacks, of course on backwards.

"You two forget your pants this morning?" Cat joked, going to get a pot of coffee started.

Tori shrugged, "We didn't _forget_..."

Jade handed Tori a carton of eggs as she tended to a pan of bacon and sausage on the stove, "In all seriousness, her tattoo looks awesome though, right?"

I glanced at Tori's side, seeing part of the tattoo showing from the hole in the side of the shirt, and a little past her waist from her lack of pants. It did look pretty cool, "Yeah it does, that was a good design to get."

We heard the door of our hotel room open and the rest of our friends came in, sitting down on the barstools in the kitchen, leaning on the island tiredly. Cat gave them cups of coffee, of course reserving two for Jade and I, and went back to make more.

"So, lesbians, what happened to your pants?" Julia asked, sipping some of Ben's coffee.

Jade laughed, "Since when are pants mandatory?"

"Man if I had gotten that memo I wouldn't have bothered this morning!" Brad complained, throwing his hands up in frustration.

I rolled my eyes, "Technically they aren't showing anything, and as much as we hate to admit it, there's a double standard when it comes to not wearing pants."

"Yeah, like there's a double standard for everything when it comes to Jade and Tori," Cat muttered teasingly, "Fucking lesbians..."

Tori frowned, putting down her spatula for a moment to lift up her shirt slightly, "I'll have you know we're both wearing shorts!"

Cat snorted, "Barely."

"Why do you have such a fascination with our lack of pants?" Jade asked with her typical eyebrow raised.

Cat shot me a wink before running up to the girls, wrapping her arms around them tightly, "BECAUSE I WANT TO HAVE SEX WITH YOU!"

Jade and Tori exchanged a playful look before calling Cat's bluff, both of them kissing her cheeks as Tori huskily replied, "Just let us know when, sweetcheeks."

Cat let out a loud squeal and ducked away from them, quickly trying to hide herself behind me. Tori just frowned at Jade, smacking her shoulder, "See what you do? You make them run away!"

"Not my fault she can't handle the heat," Jade replied, shrugging and wrapping her free arm around Tori's waist.

"Pretty sure I saw this in a porno once. I think it ends with Kevin- oof!" Brad was cut off by a loud grunt as Nikki jammed her elbow into his ribs to get him to shut up.

I laughed and checked the time on my phone, "Nice guys, not even 9:30 yet and Jade's been smacked, Brad's been elbowed, and Cat's been frightened by lesbians."

"This is most definitely going to be a productive day," Tori quipped, getting out some paper plates to serve our breakfast.

* * *

_**3 months later – Perth, Australia**_

**Tori's POV**

Brad crashed onto the couch next to Kevin, sighing heavily, "So we're leaving tomorrow, right?"

"We're going to be in Australia for another week and a half, but yeah, we'll be heading to Adelaide tomorrow and after that show we'll be in Victoria," Kevin answered, patting him on the back.

"I'm used to being in Victoria," Jade casually muttered as she was rewriting part of a song.

Ben nearly did a spit-take with his drink as the guys burst out laughing. I frowned and threw my pen at her, making her smirk. I just rolled my eyes and laid my head in her lap, looking at her notebook, pointing at one line of the song, "Extend that two measures and put a pause there."

She looked at it for a second, "Repeat it twice then pause?"

I nodded and played with one of the buttons on her shirt as she continued to stare at the page like it was rocket science. Jade looked at the couch on the other side of her and found the pen I threw, picking it up and using it and the one she already had to try out the beat.

"That sounds good," Ben confirmed after she had played it.

"What exactly are you referring to in the pause?" Jade questioned, glancing down at me.

I pointed to the set of lyrics corresponding to the measures I was talking about, "During that line it'd just be me playing the repeat while you sang, the pause would be on the guys' ends."

While she thought about what I had said, Cat ran into the room and practically jumped onto Kevin's lap, causing him to grimace slightly, "Guys we got the pictures back for the album cover!"

"Let's see it then!" Ben exclaimed, scooting over to look at the pictures Cat had.

She showed us the email sent containing the cover made from a photo-shoot we had in England, courtesy of our main sponsor. It was taken in a restricted warehouse/junkyard area. It showed Jade and I spray-painting our band's logo over a 'No Trespassing' sign, and the album title,"_**Partner in Crime**_", was at the top in a fancy, handwriting type font.

Kevin looked impressed, "Wow, that turned out really good."

Cat nodded and showed us another one of all five of us, one of the promo photos. That one was taken on the roof of the building. From left to right it was Brad, Kevin, and Ben, and they were sitting close to the camera with their legs slightly outstretched and their arms over their knees. Brad and Ben were both doing a fist-bump gesture with the arm that was furthest from Kevin. Behind them was Jade and I, Jade's hands were on my waist and mine were gripping her upper arms. The photographer managed to time the shot perfectly so the sunset was showing in the small space between mine and Jade's lips, creating an angel-like glow around both of us.

"This one's gonna be going up on your posters, and the other one of just Tori and Jade is going to be the album cover," Cat told us.

"There was another promo shot wasn't there?" Jade asked as I settled back down in her lap.

"Uhh…" She looked through the other attachments on the email, finally selecting one and showing us, "Yeah, right here."

The last promo photo was from our concert in New Orleans during the song Jade and I sang together. We were both wearing shirts and snapbacks from the new merch line we also debuted that night. The shirt Jade was wearing was a black tank version of one of the t-shirts and I was wearing a white version, on the front was our band's logo and on the back was 00, in the typical jersey style. The 00 symbolizing our sexuality, we also had 10 and 11 variations of the shirt, to symbolize gay or straight relationships. The hats were black and red, which we both had on backwards. The picture was taken while we were standing up on top of an amp at the front of the stage singing to each other, Ben and Brad were on their usual sides of the stage and Kevin was looking awesome back at the drums.

"Damn babe, we're sexy," Jade said, wrapping her arm around my waist.

"It was a good moment to take that picture, we all look pretty good," Ben added.

Cat giggled and showed us one more photo, this one being of just Jade while she was singing, "This one made me laugh cause it legit looks like Jade's having an orgasm right on the stage."

Jade and the boys laughed while I just looked at the picture skeptically, shaking my head, "That's not her orgasm face. It's more like…" I paused and imitated Jade's usual orgasm face, only making them laugh harder.

"Huh, that looks like Kevin's 'jizz in my pants' face. Though he's got a bit more of that angry climax thing going on," Cat continued as Ben and Brad were nearly in tears from laughing so hard.

I noticed Jade and Kevin exchanging their usual mischievous look before Jade spoke up, "As for Tori's face…"

"Or Cat's…" Kevin winked at her.

At that moment Cat and I simultaneously pounced on our respective West, pinning them down and holding a hand over their mouth, shouting, "NO!"

Nikki and Julia walked into the hotel room shortly after, arriving back from their short trip down the street to get some coffee. They surveyed the scene in front of them, looking at their boyfriends for answers. They never got any though, as both were too busy busting a lung laughing.

"Do we need to call for help or something?" Julia asked.

"No but do either of you have any duct tape?" Cat managed to say through her trying to wrestle Kevin into submission.

I moved my legs slightly to straddle Jade, just sitting on her as I kept my hand over her mouth. Cat seemed to be in the same situation over on the other couch.

Nikki chuckled at us as she and her sister sat down next to Ben and Brad, "What'd they say?"

"They just need to be quiet, nothing major…" I shrugged, feeling Jade's smirk widen under my hand.

"Given the fact that you two seem to be ecstatic to be on top and they're too busy laughing to do anything, I'd assume you ladies are usually bottoms."

Cat and I both gaped at Julia, who looked at us with a challenging eyebrow raised. "I'll have you know I was on top at least twice this past month!" I defended myself.

"Out of how many times?"

I opened my mouth to respond, but just frowned at her, realizing my answer probably wouldn't help my case, "I'm not obligated to answer that."

"You know there's an easy way to figure out if that's true," Brad reminded her.

Nikki snorted, "What? How many times they were getting it on last month?"

"No, the number of days they weren't can probably be counted on one hand. I'm talking about the tops/bottoms thing."

"Yeah Wests, reverse the roles," Ben laughed.

Before Cat or I could do anything at all, we both found ourselves being flipped over and pinned underneath them. Cat grunted at the sudden weight on top of her, breathlessly whining, "I want a rematch!"

I giggled and wrapped my arms around Jade's neck, pulling her down to me for a kiss.

"See, Tori accepts her submissive role in the relationship."

I flipped off Brad without bothering to break the kiss with Jade as Julia just laughed, "Kevin, Cat, take notes."

Jade eventually got up, leaving me pouting on the couch as she went to retrieve her guitar. She sat back down next to me, leaning on me as she made sure her guitar was tuned before starting to play the revised version of her song. Kevin quickly picked up on the sound and provided the beat for the song and the rest of us just listened to see how it sounded.

Jade had decided to put in temporary lyrics in some parts so she could figure out the music first, and her lyrics were hysterical to the rest of us.

"Oh, and sir I just want you to understand, that when I fuck your daughter I'm always in command…Mr. Police officer, you have a gun and that's fine, but I've got double D's that'll show your little girl a good time."

At that point I was on the floor struggling for air as I was crying laughing so hard. Kevin had also gotten to the point he couldn't play through his laughter.

"Jade…oh my god…please tell me…you're gonna change those," I stammered out, trying to catch my breath.

"Do I need to?" She replied innocently, helping me off the floor.

I exhaled deeply and rested my head in her lap, "Yes baby, you do."

Jade sighed dramatically and put down her guitar, "Fine…"

"Hey can I send those lyrics to Mr. Vega?" Kevin asked as he got out his phone.

I all but flew over the coffee table trying to restrain him.


	5. Heart-to-hearts

******Disclaimer: Victorious and all of its associated copyrights are not my property and I stake no claim to them.**

******A/N: One location (kind of) for this one. Unlike the previous chapter, this one only covers the span of less than 24 hours. It's basically touching on a point I've had yet to mention yet, mostly because I wasn't sure exactly when I wanted to implement it, but after working on some more outlining, I decided to bring some light to it now.**

* * *

_**Auckland, New Zealand**_

**Kevin's POV**

"You know, I never thought seeing Jade happy would be so strange," Cat mumbled.

Cat and I had gone out with my sister and Tori to check out Auckland a bit before we had to leave. Ben and Brad had taken their girlfriends out to dinner at a nearby restaurant, being more interested in food than the view from the Sky Tower at night, which was incredible.

I nodded as I looked over at them. Tori was nearly falling apart at the beauty of the city at night, pointing out nearly everything in sight to Jade, who just stood next to her, feigning interest, but I knew that look. She was most definitely mesmerized by beauty, but not of the city. Cat wrapped her arm around me and leaned into my side, watching the two a lot more closely than she usually did.

"How do you know she's happy?" I finally asked, noting that Jade wasn't even smiling at the moment.

She looked up at me with a 'really now?' look, "You probably know Jade better than anyone, you should know that look. Besides, you've got the exact same look when you're smitten by someone. You give me that look all the time."

"That I do," I agreed, smiling at her.

She returned my smile, but frowned slightly when she looked back at Jade, "She seems to be over it."

It only took me a fraction of a second to realize what she meant, and I quickly shook my head, "She's not, Tori just helps, even if it's inadvertent."

"Does she know yet?"

I shook my head again, "No. She asked once, and Jade didn't come home for three days, she hasn't dared mention it at all since then."

Cat sighed, "If I didn't know the pain it caused her, I'd be askin' why Jade hasn't told her yet. They've been together almost two years now, just seems like a topic she'd eventually be willing to talk about."

"It still hurts her sometimes. There's been days she just hasn't been herself. Tori just thinks it's got somethin' to do with Emma and doesn't ask about it, just gives her space and love when she needs it, which is great."

She let out a pained laugh, "Emma couldn't ever dream of hurtin' her like her mom did. I'd say the only way she could've possibly inflicted as much pain is if she actually succeeded in seriously injuring Tori."

I cringed at the thought. It was genuinely terrifying to think Jade could ever hurt as much as she had in the first 18 or so years of her life. I looked closer at my sister, Cat's words triggering a torrent of memories.

_**Flashback**_

_**1994 – Jade age 6, Kevin age 8**_

"_Mommy do you want to hear the song I wrote?" I heard my sister call out as she entered the kitchen, where I was sitting on a barstool by the island eating some pudding while my mother made dinner._

"_Jadelyn I don't have time for that nonsense. Ask your father, he might care," she said the last part so quietly I desperately hoped she didn't hear, but from the look on Jade's face, I knew she had._

_I looked between the two quickly, making a split-second decision to get Jade out of there before it got worse. I set my pudding cup and spoon down on the counter and hopped down, gently pushing her out of the kitchen, "I want to hear it, will you play it for me?"_

_She smiled slightly at my enthusiasm, nodding, "Yeah, come on!"_

_I glanced back at my mother as Jade ran back to her room, incensed at how she didn't seem to notice her daughter's pain at all._

_**2002 – Jade age 16, Kevin age 18**_

_My sister and I were walking home from school together, as usual, just talking about what had gone on that day. As we walked in, we could hear our parents arguing again. I could see the smile immediately vanish from Jade's face._

"_Jonathan, we can't keep wasting money on this useless garbage!"_

"_I never condoned her behavior! I didn't even know about it!"_

_I quietly cursed to myself as I immediately tried to get Jade back out of the house, but she wouldn't budge._

"_That child has done nothing right her entire life; she's doing nothing but holding Kevin back from his potential!"_

"_For the last time Katherine, I never told the girl she could spend money on that guitar! She did that on her own, besides I don't even think she used our money, I checked the credit card bills and that purchase isn't anywhere on them!"_

_Even though it wasn't aimed at me, their words stung badly. I couldn't believe they thought so negatively about Jade, as incredible as I knew she was. I once more tried to usher her back out the door, to no avail._

"_It doesn't matter if she used our money or not! She could be buying something useful, like something to help Kevin and his __**realistic**__ dreams!"_

"_The boy barely inspires to do more than what Jade is interested in! He has immense talent but he's just wasting it trying to support her. I don't know what we need to do to get it through his head that he shouldn't be wasting his energy on her."_

"_I say we give up the girl for adoption, find a family that'd be willing to tolerate this ridiculous notion she has of being a musician. I'm tired of her!"_

"_We can't just let her go like that, people already know about her, think about how bad we'd look."_

"_I guess you're right. God, what did we do wrong to have her turn out this way? We should've stopped after Kevin, it was such a mistake to have another child, she's caused nothing but trouble. Damn her!"_

_My mouth dropped open in shock at her words. I knew she'd never been fond of Jade, but to think she hated her so much…_

_I looked over at Jade and the pain in her eyes was as clear as day. A single tear ran down her cheek and she turned around, running as fast as she could away from the house. I made sure to slam the door as hard as I could before following her, wanting our parents to know that we'd heard them._

_**2004 – Jade age 18, Kevin age 20**_

_I hugged Jade tightly as I picked her up from her last day of high school, "You did it! I'm so proud of you, kiddo."_

_She smiled and hugged me back, burying her face in my shirt, "It's nice to finally be free."_

"_It sure is. I already finished packing up your stuff, we can stop by and pick it up and you won't ever have to look back."_

_Jade just held on tighter. I kissed the top of her head and stroked her hair comfortingly, "It's alright kiddo, she's never gonna hurt you again, I promise. It's just us now, we'll be okay."_

_**End of Flashback**_

"You're remembering, aren't you?" Cat asked knowingly.

I just nodded, not really trusting my voice at the moment. "Tori's probably the best thing that could've happened to her, honestly. The fact that she filled a void in the band is phenomenal on its own, considering this is all Jade's been dreaming of since like, ever. But damn, she's been so much better since they met…" She continued.

"Tori's been amazing, but the best thing that could've happened to Jade has been when mom left. Moving out was the distance Jade needed, but once our parents got divorced and she left for good, Jade's had the chance to heal."

She laughed, "Wouldn't it be amazing if she heard about how successful Jade's become through the news or something. Like, this is what the girl you spent your entire relationship shitting all over her dreams has become. The ultimate 'fuck you' if you ask me."

"Part of me does hope she hears about it, just so she knew that all of Jade's hard work has paid off and that none of her dreams were in vain."

"Do you think…" Cat hesitated a moment, "Do you think if it ever were to happen, Jade would forgive your mom? Or at least like, talk to her, and at least acknowledge her apology?"

I thought about her question for a long while. I wasn't positive, but I knew my sister, and I knew how deep her pain ran. "She _might_ be willing to listen to an apology, and maybe if hell froze over she'd forgive her. But Jade will never forget. She's still careful around Dad, still cringes almost when she tells him things, as if she expects to be ridiculed and put down. He never has, at least since we made up a couple years back, and he gets that things won't ever really be alright between the three of us, and especially between the two of them, so he doesn't push extra hard to repair that. He's at least had the decency to never bring up the topic of our mother or anything particularly painful about our childhood."

"She's been so good at hiding her past from everyone, pretending as if she doesn't hurt as bad as she does, pretending you guys don't even have a mother to begin with. I swear if she wasn't such a dedicated musician she'd be a killer actress."

I chuckled slightly, "Yeah, she would. I know at some point it'll catch up with her though. I can only hope it doesn't break her."

Cat shook her head, looking back at the two, "Call me cheesy, but I'm thinkin' if she's got you and Tori, she'll be just fine."

"You are cheesy, but she knows I'll be by her side til the end of time, and I'm pretty certain Tori will be too."

"For her sake, I hope so."

I nodded in agreement as Tori skipped back over to us, "Oh my god guys this view is incredible!"

"You guys wanna go for a walk on the beach?" Cat offered, looking at her phone, "Julia said that they were going back to the hotel early, she thinks Ben's sick."

"Is he alright?" Jade asked.

She nodded, "Yeah, he's fine, just a little nauseous. So you game?"

Jade glanced over at Tori and she nodded enthusiastically, "Yeah, let's go!"

We left the Sky Tower after that, flagging a cab for the short drive over to the beach. I was thankful that we'd all opted for shorts before we left. I'm sure it was a little different for Jade and I, as we just particularly enjoyed the view when our girls walked in front of us, considering they'd both worn incredibly short shorts.

"You know," Jade muttered as we walked side-by-side down the beach, watching Tori and Cat skip ahead, "Whoever invented shorts like those needs a fucking medal or something."

I laughed and nudged her with my shoulder, "You better just be talkin' about your girl."

She rolled her eyes, "C'mon now, Cat's not my type. If she was I woulda made a move years ago."

"Such a go-getter," I teased.

"Complete opposite of you, since you waited so long to even ask her out. If I were you I would have stepped up a _long_ time ago."

I looked over at her, frowning, "Oh you've done it now."

"You've done it too…Finally," she added the last part just before getting a head start running away, as she knew she'd need.

I bolted after her, yelling, "Get back here you son of a bitch!"

"NO!" She shouted back, running faster.

We were quickly getting closer to Tori and Cat, as they weren't far away to begin with. I knew if Jade got to them I was screwed, so I ran as fast as I could on sand. The girls had taken notice of us, turning around and exchanging an 'oh shit' look. I got close enough to Jade to dive at her, but unfortunately for me, she looked back just in time to see me and dodge to the side, causing me to crash land into the sand. I let out a miserable groan as I lay defeated on the ground.

"Jade what did you do?" Tori asked in her scolding tone.

"Nothing…" She responded not so innocently, still panting.

Cat came over and knelt beside me, trying to suppress her laughter, "You okay?"

I sat up and crossed my arms, "Imma kill her."

"Get up, you big sissy," Jade muttered, holding her hand out to help me up.

I laughed and took her hand, standing up and dusting off my shorts. "So what were you trying to kill her over now?" Tori asked me.

"Apparently Jade thinks she's better with women than I am," I replied, raising an eyebrow at Jade.

She frowned at my exaggerating the truth as Tori glared at her. Cat just smiled and shook her head, "What led her to believe that?"

"_Someone_ said that if the roles were reversed, it wouldn't have been as long as it was until we got together. She thinks just cause she got with Tori soon after they met she's got one up on me."

Cat turned to Jade, crossing her arms, "Is this true?"

"Maybe a little bit," she mumbled, looking away.

"I guess you're forgetting the fact that _I_ made a move on _you_," Tori teased Jade.

"Yeah but _I _kissed _you_, so technically, I initiated the relationship."

The two then proceeded to continue walking down the coast, still arguing over the subject. Cat grinned in amusement as I took her hand and we followed after them.

"I swear, it should be _illegal_ to be as cute as they are," Cat grumbled to me when we saw them kicking water at each other and laughing like little kids.

I couldn't help but smile, "I love seeing her so happy."

She nodded, "It is nice, isn't it? Been her friend for over 20 years and I've never seen her this happy. It's a little weird, seein' her go from being so miserable all the time to barely ever losing a smile when she's around Tori."

"Yeah…"

We were both quiet for a while before she asked, "You think she's ever gonna tell her?"

I shrugged, "I'd say so. She will when she's ready to talk about it. She trusts Tori with everything; it's just something she hates even remembering."

"You might wanna push her in the right direction a bit; it'd do her some good to talk to someone about it."

**No one's POV**

Once the four got back to their hotel, stopping for a minute to check on Ben, they went to their room to get ready to crash for the night. As Tori was grabbing a bottle of water from their mini fridge after both Jade and Cat had gone to their separate rooms, Kevin decided to talk to her.

"Hey Tor, got a second?"

She looked over and nodded, "What's up?"

He shoved his hands in his pockets and leaned on the wall nearby, "Would you be willing to do Jade and I a favor?"

"What is it?"

"Get her to talk about…her childhood. I know the last time you asked it really didn't go well, but it'd probably be good for her to talk about it, vent a little bit I guess. If she gets upset I'll take the heat for it, but would you be willing to try?"

Tori bit her lip and stared down at the ground, contemplating his question before answering, "I really hate upsetting her, but I can ask if you think it'd do her some good."

He smiled slightly and patted her shoulder, "Thanks kid, I owe you one."

She smiled back, "If it does help her, I'll consider the debt paid in full."

They went to their separate rooms afterwards. Tori found Jade in the bathroom working on taking her makeup off. She set her water bottle down on the counter and followed suit, both of them finishing cleaning up before leaving the bathroom.

Tori sat down near the middle of the bed, holding her hand out to Jade, "Can we talk?"

Jade looked curious but didn't object, sitting down across from her wife, "What's on your mind?"

"The last time this subject came up it ended quite badly, but…" Tori hesitated a moment, looking back up into Jade's eyes, "Will you tell me about your childhood?"

Jade tensed up and Tori could see the pain flash in her eyes, but unlike the previous time, she didn't pull away and storm out. She just laughed, a single short exhale accompanied by a pained smile, "So you think now that we're married you should know all of my secrets?"

Tori immediately shook her head, "No. I know it's got nothing to do with secrets."

"Kevin put you up to this, didn't he?" She asked after a moment of silence. "You wouldn't ask if he hadn't."

Tori just nodded, "Kind of. He thought talking about it would be good."

Jade sighed, "Can I at least change first?"

She nodded again and they quickly changed into their usual sleepwear that involved clothes, more quickly on Tori's part, but were soon settled back into bed, under the blankets but still sitting up. Jade wrapped her arms around her knees and rested her chin on her forearm, "What do you know?"

"I honestly don't know anything about your childhood other than the fact you were really into music and your father was an asshole. And that you were really close to Kevin, but that's not exactly exclusive to when you were younger."

Jade nodded and sighed heavily before starting, "Well, I guess I'll start from the beginning then, assuming that you particularly want to know about my mother. As far back as I can remember, she made it her personal mission to deter me from everything I strived for. She constantly put me down and made sure I never forgot how much she despised my very existence. She was never interested in anything I did and didn't see me as anything except a waste of space and someone holding Kevin back. Always told me how terrible my music was, or how much of a disappointment I was, anything to make me feel like shit. My dad never argued her points, but there was never as much malice behind his words. Every once and a while he'd ask me how I was doing on whatever song I was working on, or tell me that I was good when he heard me playing. It wasn't very often, but I was thankful that for once Kevin wasn't the only one who acknowledged my existence in a positive way."

Tori listened quietly; gently rubbing up and down Jade's back, just like she knew always made her feel better. She noticed that Jade's head had lowered slightly, as she had started to cry. Tori just wiped her tears away with her thumb and let her continue. "On multiple occasions she proposed the idea of putting me up for adoption, and would eventually give up based on the notion that it'd make her and my father look bad. For some reason I always felt that his view on that was just to please her, but it still hurt like hell. When Kevin turned 18 he got his own place close to the college he attended right after high school. He had given me a key, telling me that I could come over whenever I wanted, regardless of what time or day it was. Needless to say, I spent most of my time over there, at least giving him the respect of staying on the other side of his flat when there was a sock on his doorknob."

They both smiled slightly at the joke and Tori held her a little closer. "Last day of high school was the end of my nightmare, for the most part. Kevin picked me up from school and told me he already had my stuff packed. We stopped by home and quickly loaded it in his truck, happy that nobody was home at the time. I moved in with him permanently after that, and we moved into the house we had when you and I met around the time we decided to start a band, about halfway through when I was in college. But soon after I moved out we got the news that our parents had divorced, my mother trying to take all of my father's money but not really succeeding. After that she completely dropped off the radar. Haven't seen or talked to her in like…8 years or so."

Tori took a moment to digest everything Jade had said. She knew Jade had a rough childhood, but didn't realize just how terrible it was. Jade leaned her head on Tori's shoulder, taking comfort in one of the few people she truly trusted.

"She especially hated the fact that I was interested in girls. Funny how everything turned out," Jade added after a while of silence.

Tori smiled and wrapped both her arms around Jade, "Wouldn't she love to see where you are now. World famous musician married to a woman."

Jade looked up into her eyes and smiled, running her fingers through her wife's hair, "I love you more than anything, you know that?"

"Besides Kevin," Tori teased, smiling at her and giving her a quick kiss, "But yes, and I love you just as much."

"Not the same kind of love," Jade muttered.

"What's different about it?" She asked, genuinely curious how it differentiated, other than one being strictly platonic.

"Kevin's been there for me my entire life, he's been all I had at times, and he's always been my best friend. We've always loved and cared about each other unconditionally, he's my brother. But…" Jade took Tori's left hand, kissing her ring, "This is how I love you. As someone I know will also be by my side forever, someone I can always go to for nearly anything, someone I wanna spend the rest of forever with telling her everyday how amazing she is, how beautiful she is, and how much I love her. You're my soul mate and the love of my life."

Tori leaned her forehead against Jade's, shaking her head and smiling, "You know, I thought a long time ago that I knew how you felt about me. But somehow you manage to be so good with words I feel like I could just melt. You see me as your soul mate."

"I do. _Somehow_, you managed to find a way to steal my heart even after all the shit I've been through." She rested her hand on Tori's cheek, staring into her eyes, "I swear every time I look into your eyes it just reminds me that nobody's ever loved anyone the way I love you. Thank you for agreeing to talk to me about my childhood, considering what happened last time. I am sorry about that, by the way."

"I know, you've only apologized about a thousand times. I forgave you a long time ago. Besides, you know I'd do anything to make you feel better."

"Anything?" Jade asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Maybe…"

Jade smirked and pulled her into a kiss, gently pushing her down onto her back and mumbling against her lips, "Distract me."

Tori smiled and pulled away, tapping Jade's nose in a playfully scolding manner, "Ah-ah, if I'm distracting you I'm not letting you be on top."

"Let…" Jade began to scoff before she was abruptly cut off by Tori flipping her over and getting on top of her.

Her hands slowly ran up Jade's arms before locking their fingers together, pinning her hands above her head. She gave Jade a devilish grin, "Sorry, what were you saying?"

Jade wrapped her legs around Tori's waist, pulling her down after muttering a quick, "Nothing important."

**Kevin's POV**

I frowned as I walked out to the kitchen and saw I was the first one up. I sighed and decided to cheat a little bit and order room service. While I was on the phone, I noticed Tori come out of her room just to go over and crash on the couch. I finished up my order before going over and sitting next to her.

"Such a bundle of energy this morning," I teased as she put her feet up in my lap.

She smile slightly and shook her head, "She was willing to tell me about your mom. You were right, it did help her."

"Good. So she's doing okay?"

"Yeah, she's still asleep." She laid back and pulled her hat over her face, "Just don't tell her I took her hat."

"Isn't that her shirt too?"

Tori shrugged, "Her hat, her shirt, her shorts."

I glanced at her clothes again and realized she was right. She was wearing a pair of Jade's sleep/lounge type shorts, her button-up red and black flannel shirt, and her black and yellow Batman snapback. I chuckled and patted her leg, "Secret's safe with me."

"So," she started again after a bit of silence, "I've gotta know something. I know you convinced Jade to trust me way back when. Why did you?"

"It was just a whim, honestly. You seemed to actually genuinely care about her, and I knew she needed someone like you."

Tori sat up and tilted her hat up so she could see me better, "Yeah but let's be real here, you literally put her life in my hands. You knew if I had hurt her she'd be done for. There had to be something else to make you take that kind of chance."

She was absolutely right with that statement. Whether I realized it or not at the time, I knew that if the relationship had gone badly, I wouldn't have my sister anymore. It was a scary thought. "I was closer to Jade than anyone else for the first 26 years of her life, I knew her like the back of my hand, her personality was, and still is, very similar to mine in some ways, so I know how she thinks. The look in her eyes when she saw you, the subtle lack of venom in her insults towards you, the way she just seemed more…alive around you. You were somethin' special to her." I stopped when I heard the knock on the door from room service. I just gave her a smirk as I got up and went to the door, adding over my shoulder, "Besides, I knew if you hurt her I could just toss you into a meat grinder and piss on your grave."

I heard her laughing as I opened the door and got the food, bringing it back inside. She got up and came over to the kitchen to get her food, "Sounds brutal."

I gave her a one armed hug, "Yep, count yourself lucky."

"I do," she replied, in a lot less of a joking manner, I glanced over and saw her smile and a hint of a blush on her cheeks, "But wait, is her shitty childhood the reason she's so…"

"Abrasive?" I guessed.

Tori nodded and opened one of the bottles of orange juice, "That's a good word for it."

"Yeah, she doesn't trust people easily and naturally just treats them like shit before they can treat her like shit."

"Makes sense I guess. You know you got yourself a pretty incredible sister."

"I sure as hell do," I smiled, handing her plate of food, "Go wake her up and tell her we got pancakes, would you?"

"Pancakes?" I laughed at the sound of Jade's excited voice behind us and just shook my head.

Tori set her plate down and wrapped her arm around Jade's waist, smiling at me, "Done!"

Jade rolled her eyes, "Can I just have some pancakes? And why are you wearing my hat?"

I got out another plate and piled some pancakes on it, pushing it over to Jade along with some syrup and a fork, "I'm not supposed to tell you this, but," I whispered to her, "She's wearing your shirt and your shorts too."

Jade frowned at her, "Babe!"

Tori just wagged her eyebrows at her before stealing a chunk off of one of the pancakes and skipping away with her own plate. Jade stood there with a shocked look on her face for a moment before turning to me, "She took my pancakes! And my clothes!"

I shrugged, "I think the rights to your stuff were waivered in your marriage contract."

"Fuck…" She mumbled, walking away dejectedly.

After I had woken Cat up, she and I sat down on the couch opposite of Jade and Tori with our own food. Jade was practically lying in Tori's lap as she devoured her pancakes at almost an unhealthy pace. I noticed Cat discreetly getting her phone out of her pocket and opening the camera app before saying casually to them, "You should reenact the Lady and the Tramp spaghetti scene."

Tori smiled and grabbed a piece of bacon off her plate putting half in her mouth before leaning down just as Jade tilted her head upwards, biting off the other half and kissing her. Cat had the biggest grin as she showed me the perfect 3 second video she got of it, whispering, "This is so going online."

* * *

**A/N: For the record, the Sky Tower in Auckland is amazing, and even more so at night. If you'd like to know what it looks like just Google something like Auckland Sky Tower and you'll see it. It looks like a lot skinnier version of the Space Needle in Seattle, essentially.**

**Next chapter will probably continue somewhere in southwestern Canada and end up back in LA; I've got some bigger plans for these guys.**

**Anyways, let me know your thoughts and where you'd like to see this go.**


	6. Home Sweet Home

**Disclaimer: Victorious and all of its associated copyrights are not my property and I stake no claim to them.**

**A/N: Bringing the tour to a close this chapter. Tried to answer some questions and set some things up, so this one's worth a read. I've been quite busy lately with family issues, but I'm still working on this story. An outline is in the drafts, so the next chapter will be up as soon as I get it finished.**

* * *

The band plus the boys' girlfriends were doing an interview with a news station in Vancouver, which they had been previously told would be put online for anyone in the world to see. They were just getting settled on the two couches in the interview room, their interviewer, a woman named Kaitlyn was just going over her notes, trying to stifle her laughter at the constant banter between the friends.

"Babe just hold still and let her put the microphone on you," Tori snapped.

Jade smirked and allowed the assistant to attach the microphone to the top of her t-shirt, waiting until she moved onto Kevin to whisper, "Call me."

Cat grinned from where she was looking through her phone next to Kevin, "Jade's been working on her new book lately, _1001 ways to piss off the woman who gets naked for you_."

"Might shorten the title, Tori doesn't like big things," Jade muttered.

Cat glanced down at Jade's chest and back at her skeptically, "Then why is she with the queen of tits?"

"Beats me," Jade shrugged.

"Is that your answer…?"

Jade looked up and shook her head when she realized what exactly she had said, "Yes."

Kevin fixed one of his sleeves that had rolled down slightly, "I have to live with them."

Once they had all been set up with their microphones, the cameraman signaled for them to start.

Kaitlyn smiled and looked towards the camera, "Okay, so I'm with the new breakout band that you've most likely heard of by now, Social Revolution. From left to right, we have Brad Patton, the rhythm guitarist, Nikki and Julia Hayes, twin girlfriends of Brad and bassist Ben Fitzgerald, on the other side of Julia. On the other couch we've got Cat Valentine, now fiancé of drummer Kevin West, along with the constantly bickering married couple, frontwoman Jade West and lead guitarist Tori Vega." She gestured to each one as she went by, with Brad and Ben on her left and Jade and Kevin on her right.

"+1 for the accurate introductions," Tori chuckled.

"Constantly bickering…" Jade mumbled, quieting down and looking away when she got a glare from Tori.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen, let's start with your album. What's the 411 on that?"

Cat smiled, acting ecstatic, "I'll answer that one, since they've put me in charge of those shenanigans. They haven't been working on a ton of recording _yet_. The plan is to start on that once we get back to Los Angeles in a few weeks. From what we've heard so far, all of it will be in LA, so we shouldn't have to travel for that. There are music videos in production for 3 of the planned singles, being 'Apocalypse', 'Chase Me Down', and their famous gay anthem, 'I'll Love You Anyway.' Most of the footage for those has been filmed while we were on tour."

"Do you have any sneak peeks for us?" Kaitlyn asked, already knowing the answer.

"We do, indeed. Our sponsor, Mason, sent us a small excerpt of the music video filmed for _I'll Love You Anyway_. Most of it being these ladies being _adorable_." Cat said, smiling at the two.

They glanced back at the large monitor behind them, which began playing the footage. The video shown was some clips they'd filmed in New Zealand, particularly on a beautiful beach. There were a few blurred out faces of people depicting actual homophobic passers-by. During the filming, they'd happened to catch a few incidents on video. One being as they were setting up and the girls were sitting in the sand, with Tori in Jade's lap.

_A straight couple walked by, giving disdainful looks to the women, "Are you queers?"_

_Jade glanced up with a raised eyebrow, giving a look to Tori before shaking her head, "No, we just kiss a lot and sleep in the same bed and got married. We're only friends though."_

_Tori nodded, "Just friends."_

_They demonstrated the legitimacy of their claim by promptly sharing a deeply passionate kiss. The end of that clip showed the couple walking away muttering things such as, "Disgusting."_

_The next piece of footage showed the two standing up on a small sand dune, laughing as they were getting ready to film one of the vocal portions and acting as if they were going to push each other off of the top._

_Jade pretended to push Tori, only at the last second catching her so she didn't actually fall, "QUEEN OF THE HILL, BITCH!"_

_Finally it showed the music, a scene of the girls singing and the guys playing their respective instruments in the background._

"Well then, you ladies certainly know how to deal with criticism," Kaitlyn chuckled.

Tori sighed, "We get a _lot_ of practice…"

"Does it bother you? Getting hate like that, I mean."

"It might bother Tori a bit more, just because she's the type that wants everyone to love her. But I think all in all we're fine with it. I know I'm happy, and I'm pretty sure Tori's happy, so there's not much to be upset about."

"The best thing that comes out of those situations is the clever ways those girls think up on the spot to deal with those people," Kevin added.

Kaitlyn raised an eyebrow, "Examples?"

Cat smiled, "We've got tons. Few months ago we were in France and while all of us were talking a walk after visiting the Eiffel Tower, and we were all holding hands with our special people, and this group of like 5 guys approached Jade and Tori, who were walking slightly ahead of us. They kept asking them for their numbers and trying to rub all up on them, so what do these two do? They whip out their acting skills and start _fighting_, like legit fighting, screaming, throwing punches, the whole deal. Tori looked at Jade and started screaming at her, I think about her being so gay she attracted too much attention, and it looked so real we were thinking about trying to break them up. But these guys got so nervous they just bolted. Soon as they were out of view they started laughing and we just continued on. It was one of the most brilliant things I've ever witnessed."

"There was also that one time in Miami," Ben added. "We were sporting our new merch, the snapbacks and tees. Jade and Tori had cut the t-shirts so the sleeves and sides were gone, looked awesome. But most of us have a tendency to wear the hats backwards, of course that's what the girls were doing, and they both had on the cut-up versions of the shirts along with some jeans, remember that part 'cause we bugged the hell out of Tori about her pants and shoes being the same shade of grey. But anyway we walked past these two straight couples."

Brad continued, "The one girl looked at Tori and was like, 'where's your man?' other girl asked the same thing to Jade. Tori practically snorted was like 'where's your woman?' Argument goes on for like two more minutes before the one guy, who looked kinda like he belonged in a gay porno as the ultimate bottom, looked at Tori and asked her if she wanted his friend's number, as he had quite the 'tool'. Tori went a pulled a Jade and said with the most sickeningly calm voice, 'that'd be nice, I need a new one to add to my collection.'"

"Jade smiled and nodded and was like 'yeah we may even keep him alive if he's good.' These people looked as if the girls were fuckin' mental and hauled ass as far away as possible. Don't think I've ever laughed that hard," Ben finished.

"So they go for scare tactics," Kaitlyn surmised, smiling.

Cat laughed, "Most of the time, yeah. Sometimes they go for sarcasm, sometimes they just start getting all frisky and make people uncomfortable enough that they back off."

"How do they know how to react if they don't plan anything?"

"They're weird like that. One look and they know the plan. Improv at its finest," Cat said.

"Okay so we put up a poll on our website of what people wanted us to ask you guys, and one of the questions we got the most, was what does your house look like? The interior design."

Kevin smirked at Cat, "That one's for you, babe."

"I worked on a lot of customized designs for most sections of the house, unfortunately most of it has been set up while we've been gone on tour, so we haven't gotten to experience some of it yet. The most notable features I suppose would be in our living area, it's kind of right inside the front door, after a small foyer type room. The living area connects to the kitchen by a huge doorway; I'd say it's like 10 feet across, but we've made it into a kickass home theater. The TV we've got in there is like 92-94 inches, flat screen, all that fancy crap, the West kids picked that one out. We've got dozens of various game systems, from the new PS4 to the Atari 2600 I think is what it is, and these consoles are on one side of the TV, on the other side is at _least_ a thousand different movies and games. Got at least 10 games for each console, and that's just for the oldest ones. The newer ones have about 50-75 games each. There're hundreds of movies, from Jade and Kevin's horror movie collection to us girls' rom-com collection, extremely vast. Along the walls are various vintage posters, like Rolling Stones magazine covers, old band promos, even got some old comic book covers, Marvel and DC superheroes. Those things are _everywhere_ in the house, I mean, there's a huge Marilyn Monroe framed poster above the sink in one of the bathrooms and a Led Zeppelin photo-shoot poster above the sink in the kitchen. As for furniture, there's a huge half square type couch in the living area, like if you put two L-shaped couches together. There's a bar built into the wall to the left of the couch, near the front window, complete with a mini-fridge with tons of alcohol that we'll probably have to replace once we get home. There're tons of guitars along the walls, including Jade's _first_ guitars, electric and acoustic. Those are in the music room, I believe."

"Sounds very extravagant," Kaitlyn said, looking quite impressed. "So what's the layout of the house? You said inside the front door is a small foyer, and then the living area, and next to that is the kitchen, but what else?"

Tori spoke up, "From front to back, that's an entire side. It's the front, living area, kitchen, and then the kitchen/dining area connects to the backyard. Behind the TV in the living room/home theater area is a stairway to the second floor, where Ben and Brad's rooms are, plus three guest bedrooms, each room complete with its own bathroom. There's an extra room up there which we've been considering converting into a playroom once the little people get added to the family. The whole second floor kinda looks like, if you were to walk up the stairs and stand at the top, you'd see a wide open area, which we've got mostly comfort items in there, loveseats and things of the like. There's also a huge, fancy ass piano that can be heard throughout the house if you set it up correctly. This area of the second floor is very open, and since there's a balcony type thing on the stairs, it can be seen from the living room. But back to the living area, to the very right, against the wall that connects to the kitchen, there's a hallway, left side of the hallway is Kevin and Cat's bedroom, right side of the hallway is mine and Jade's bedroom. Next to Kevin's room is the stairs to the basement, then next to that is the door to the garage and the very end of the hall is the laundry room. Basement's got the music room to the left and another home theater to the right, but that one's more movie theater-esque, also behind the stairs is a gym type area and another bar because why the hell not."

"So it's a pretty big house?"

"Yeah, we saved up for a long time to pay for it, knowing that there'd be at least all 8 of us living there. Though to be fair, when we were saving up, we only took into account 6 of us, since Ben and Brad weren't _exclusive_ at the time," Cat added, giving a teasing look to the boys.

"_Plus_," Jade interrupted, looking amused, "I'm just going to add this because I think it's the funniest thing ever. This amazing woman that I married," she wrapped her arm around Tori and smirked, "Decided, you know, I don't think I've expressed my homosexuality well enough yet, so I'm going to put a gigantic fucking poster of a bunch of naked women from _The L-word _in our bedroom."

Tori grinned, "I like that picture."

"Me too," Kevin said, earning himself a smack on the arm from Cat.

Jade just shrugged, "To get back at her I put a poster of James Dean on the opposite side of the room."

Cat's eyes seemed to glaze over, "That man is a sex god."

"Yeah…" Jade agreed.

"So Jade you're interested in men as well?" Kaitlyn asked.

Jade shrugged, "I suppose. I don't really lean either way. It just so happened I ended up with a woman, and that's fine with me."

"Kevin has she always felt this way?"

He nodded, "Yeah, her middle school and early high school years were mostly spent dating guys, but one day she mentioned she liked chicks too so I was all stoked and asking if we could go pick up chicks together."

Ben chuckled, "It was amusing when we went out with them, it's like, Brad and I would walk into a bar and be like, alright man let's decide on a girl and throw everything in our arsenal at them and see if we can't maybe get their number. But the Wests? Shit, they said 'hi' to anyone in the place and they were sent swooning into next week. They mostly approached women; either way they swung, one of these kids would get a number almost every time."

"I hated it," Cat muttered.

Jade smirked, "I loved it when Cat would come over to visit and some blonde with _huge_," Tori smacked her arm, making Jade quickly correct herself, but not doing much better, "Amounts of sex-appeal, then she and Cat would start with this epic stare down and Kevin would walk out in nothing but some basketball shorts and be like 'aw shit.' Like in his defense he just wanted to get laid, and since Cat didn't show an interest he was like whatever. He did try."

Their interviewer laughed, "Seems like your family isn't very…typical. Okay but Jade and Tori, what were the reactions of your families when you announced your engagement?"

Jade glanced at Tori as if to tell her to answer. "Well, there wasn't much announcement, I suppose. Jade offhandedly told her father like a week after the fact, and he didn't seem to mind, expressed his congratulations and that was that. As for my family, Jade went the traditional route and asked my father for his blessing first, and my mom was present, so both of them knew, then my sister was nearly squealing in excitement."

"Jade asked for your father's permission to propose? Why was that?"

"Mostly because I knew that it would probably turn out better that way. He's a police officer, and I've got a huge criminal record, minor offenses, mind you, but I was like, Imma get myself in good beforehand to minimalize the chances of him shooting me…"

Tori rolled her eyes, "She asked because respects me and my father, and it would've meant more to both of us if she did receive his blessing first."

"Where did the proposal take place? It was well documented that Kevin proposed to his girlfriend in Italy."

Tori smiled, "Comparatively, the location of our engagement was just as magical as Venice. It was at our place, a secluded cabin in the mountains just outside of Los Angeles, with a _beautiful_ view of the city. We often went there and laid on the grass near the cliff overlooking the city to watch the stars and get some peace and quiet. Before I came along, it was Jade's special place. No one alive knows the exact location aside from Jade and I, along with Kevin, since it was put in his name, considering he's older. Even Cat doesn't know, since she knows it's our place and she doesn't need to know anyway. But it was nearly in the exact same spot where we first kissed about a year earlier, so our relationship started and progressed in the same place."

"Alright, now explain the rings. You two seem to have customized wedding rings, and you've never publicly explained them yet."

"They basically symbolize us, and our yin-yang type relationship. Each one has three diamonds, hers are white with a black one in the middle, and mine are black with a white one in the middle. It basically just means how with our relationship, we remain ourselves, but it's obvious we've rubbed off a bit on each other."

Kaitlyn smiled, "Aww, that's so adorable."

"Can it," Jade grumbled.

Tori laughed as their interviewer continued, "Another question we got a lot of, ladies what's your favorite thing to do together?"

Cat snorted, "That's a no-brainer."

"Cuddling and some cheesy rom-com with an abundance of food," Tori answered, smiling widely.

Jade smirked, "Tori does love that combination. As for me, I'd bet any money every single person here thinks they know what my answer would be, but true to my unpredictability, I'd say only Tori or Kevin have the slightest idea of what I'll say."

Kevin nodded, "Hint, it's not sex."

The other five proceeded to gape at him as if they truly couldn't believe such a thing. Tori started smiling like a fool and Jade just shrugged, "My _favorite_ thing to do with Tori absolutely would be writing or playing music. Most of my life nothing's made me happier than when I did that on my own, but with Tori, it's just a happiness I can't even put into words. I love it."

"People really seem to doubt how we feel about each other sometimes. What makes us happy really isn't anything that's raunchy in any way," Tori said.

"It can be," Jade muttered, looking away innocently.

"Cat," the interviewer continued, looking at the now-brunette, "Since you seem to be these girls' biggest fan, other fans want to know, what's the cutest thing these two have done for each other?"

Kevin chuckled, "We're gonna be here all night now."

Cat smiled and thought for a moment, "Well…For Tori, it'd be when she leaves notes for Jade. Now I'm probably going to get myself killed for this, so I'll be brief. When we lived at the old house, the one Jade and Kevin moved into when they were like, early twenties or something, and Tori first started living there, I'd come over most every day to see them. Still not sure how she did it, but when Jade would get up in the morning, she'd find little post-it notes in places she'd undoubtedly come across them. I never knew what they said, but she'd always smile and _blush_, like a teenage girl, it was adorable."

"You're gonna wake up tomorrow and find all of your hair gone…" Jade growled.

"I know," Cat shrugged, continuing, "As for _Jade_…Cutest thing, that one's difficult. She's done candlelit dinners, did Tori's chores for her, and she's written tons of songs just for her. Tori also likes this one book series, _The Boxcar Children_, and Jade reads it to her sometimes when she can't sleep, it's the cutest thing. Things they both have a tendency to do; sing to each other, look after the other if one is more intoxicated, they'll put each other's phones on the chargers if they fall asleep and forget about it, let each other pick the movie they watch even though they know they'll dislike it, make food special for each other…I could go on for days."

Kevin leaned over and whispered something to her, making Cat's eyes light up and her smile turn radiant, "Oh! That's a good one! This only happened once that I know of but I was almost crying it was so adorable. It was like a year or two ago, and we were leaving the bar they used to play at, Pierce, and it was raining. Not storming, but drizzling. So what do these cute-ass bitches do? They start dancing in the rain, and then they kiss, and I'm nothing but a puddle of aww's at that point."

Tori smiled, "I loved that. It's one of those things that you think is totally ridiculous, until you actually fall in love with someone and they do that and you're questioning whether or not your amount of love is sane."

"It's not," Jade whispered.

"A lot of people are saying that Jade and Tori aren't actually married, or aren't even _together_. What could you say that would dispute that?"

Cat rolled her eyes, "There's nothing to say that could prove it, unless we were to publish every text they've sent to each other, every letter written, every song, every word, which we will _never_ do. Occasionally we post things with their permission, but their business is their own. We," she gestured to herself and her friends, "All know that they're legit. If people don't believe it that's fine."

"Their claims mostly state that the two are too affectionate, almost as if they're putting on a show."

"Find any other couple who is genuinely in love and doesn't care what people think. I guarantee they will act the exact same way. Jade and Tori are just as affectionate when no one else is around. It's not a show, it's love."

Kevin wrapped his arm around her and kissed her temple, "Cat's a sucker for romance."

Their interviewer smiled, "Okay, hard pressing questions now. Ben, Brad, any plans on marriage?"

Ben shrugged, "One step at a time. Julia and Nikki aren't ready for that yet, so that's fine."

"Okay, then what about little Wests?" She asked Kevin and Jade.

"Uhh…" Jade thought a moment, "Cat and Tori both want about a thousand kids each, but I dunno. Just don't think that's what we want from life."

Tori struggled to suppress a smile, as she knew Jade was lying through her teeth. They'd talked a few days prior, and were planning on a child already. As for Kevin and Cat, she knew Cat was pushing for it, and Kevin was starting to break. Regardless she just shrugged, "Yeah, doubt it's gonna happen."

At that moment, since Jade already had her arm around Tori, she could feel Jade's thumb rubbing her side as she held her a bit closer. She could just barely see a hint of a smile on the very edge of Jade's lips.

"So you guys are planning on staying the way you are for a while? Working on your music and no specific plans?"

Kevin nodded, keeping up the charade, "Just music."

She accepted the answer and continued, "A song surfaced on the internet a few months ago, supposedly one Jade had written only a few days after she met Tori. So, spill. What's the truth?"

Jade raised an eyebrow as she struggled to remember. Kaitlyn handed her a piece of paper with the printed off lyrics, and as Jade read them, it dawned on her where the song had come from. Tori glanced over her shoulder at the paper and smiled as well. "Okay, well…This was written in parts, basically. It's half true that I wrote it soon after I met Tori, but I only _finished_ it then. The original draft for the story was something I wrote while I was barely conscious after waking up from a weird dream I had. According to the lyrics, it's pretty obvious what it was."

She looked at the lyrics, then back to Jade, "So you were slightly prophetic?"

Jade shrugged, "S'pose so. Dreaming about hot girls wasn't new to me, but this particular one was. I didn't know who I was writing about until I saw Vega."

"Fans like to speculate you wrote the song after seeing Tori for the first time. You claim it was beforehand?"

"Like I said, I didn't know who I was writing about. All I remember was her eyes, how she felt, all that sappy crap."

"Alright, last question before we have to bring this interview to a close. This was by far the most requested question. First, have you two heard of 'shipping'?"

"No…?" Jade replied, confused.

"Basically it's where you heavily endorse a particular pairing of people. For example, for Kevin and Cat, fans get frustrated and just call it Kat, with a K. For you two, the most popular one would be Jori. A lot of fans encourage you two to read some things written about you, so we put up an extra poll of what people would want you to read, so here you go."

She handed the two another piece of paper with a short story on it. Jade and Tori read it quietly, their facial expressions changing every once and a while in reaction.

Tori looked away, blushing furiously, "Oh my god."

Jade chuckled, giving the paper back, "That was good. We'll have to read more of those."

"As for the question, I'm sure by now you've seen at least _something_ fans have made for you two. What do you think of it?"

"It's cute," Tori said, "We've seen a few compilation videos of us, and it was really adorable. It makes me happy when people recognize our love for each other."

"Only creepy thing is that a lot of the videos and photos weren't even taken by us, just fans," Jade muttered.

"So you two ship Jori?" She asked teasingly.

Jade and Tori exchanged a look before both shaking their heads and saying in unison, "No way."

* * *

The group was taking the short walk back to their hotel, as it was fairly decent weather out, being early autumn. They were split up in groups of four, with all the girls aside from Jade walking ahead, talking about designs for a new clothing line the three had been working on; Tori was just offering a few pointers. The boys plus Jade were walking behind them, discussing their music, but also not-so-discreetly just enjoying the view of the women in front of them.

For the past few block it had sounded like someone was following them, which was only noticed by Ben and Brad. They'd continuously turned around to ward off any fans that were getting too close, or to even invite them over to talk. Each time, however, no one was directly behind them. It seemed the only other people around were just doing their own thing. They knew they were leaving the next morning, so they thought nothing of it.

* * *

_**2:16 – Social Revolution SROfficial: Back in LA at 2 in the morning. I think Tori's sleepwalking…#ToriTheZombie -Kevin**_

Making their way through the airport after their Seattle to Los Angeles flight felt surreal. They'd been away from home so long; it was strange knowing that soon, they'd be sleeping in their own beds. They called cabs to get home, and only bothering to bring their luggage right inside the door, they set off, half asleep, to their rooms. They were content that the beds had been remade by Tori's mother and sister, so everything was clean. The only thing they forgot to do, which at least one of them did every night, was recheck that all doors and windows were locked, as well as turn on the security system. Being as tired as they were, however, it wasn't a big deal.

The following evening, after they'd spent the entire day getting moved back in, they decided to go out to see some friends. Much to Tori's delight, Andre was one of the friends they met up with at a big house party hosted by a friend of theirs, Daniel, who lived just down the street. Andre was tasked with watching after their house, making sure the security system was up and running and nothing strange happened. According to his bi-weekly reports, all was well.

Tori spent most of the night talking to her old friend while the boys and Jade spoke to buddies from Pierce they hadn't seen in a while. About midway through the party, their friend Daniel hopped up onto the makeshift stage he'd set up in the backyard, raising his beer in a toast.

"So as most of you guys know, our good friends from Social Revolution just recently got back from their international tour. I'm gonna keep this short and sweet 'cause we've got some plans for them, but if you would, raise your fuckin' glasses in celebration of their awesomeness and success!"

The partygoers cheered and drank to his toast, offering congratulatory bro-hugs to them. After most everyone got their turns, Daniel rounded up his friends to take them to the basement for some games. His basement was turned into a game room and concert-type area, with a kickass sound system throughout the whole floor, various flatscreens with game systems, vintage arcade machines, and in particular, a large area cut out for multiple couches and chairs for people to sit around and talk. In that area were a few dozen of their friends. The group received new, full beers before settling down at Daniel's request.

"Aight, in honor of you guys bein' back, first of all we got you some strippers," he gestured over to a group of six girls, who weren't wearing much initially, but began taking off what was left, until they were in very small matching bikinis with strings of lights around the waist and bottom of their breasts.

Daniel grinned as the girls jumped up onto the coffee table and began dancing. "As if we needed to get you anything else, but a little birdie told us that Jade here got hitched to that sexy piece of ass," he teased, nodding at Tori lightheartedly, "So for that, we, as in Dave, Josh, and I, got you this."

He handed a box over to Jade who raised an eyebrow at him before opening it, seeing a skimpy piece of black and red laced lingerie. Jade rolled her eyes and laughed, chucking the lid of the box at Dan's head. He continued, looking over at Kevin, "As for you, my good sir, we got you a complimentary box of condoms. Don't use them all in one night."

Kevin glanced down and saw a full box of Trojan Magnums. He shook his head as the rest of them burst into laughter.

"You guys can break those in later, right now though, we're gonna party!" Daniel shouted, jumping up and going over to an iPod dock and selecting a song, turning the volume up quite loud, and the bass even louder. As the sound of _Grenade On Da Flo _flowed through the speakers, they followed his lead and hopped up, dancing to the pulsating music.

* * *

**A/N: Back in Los Angeles, had some fun times with friends, and plans for the future. **

**Another quick note, the Atari 2600 was a real system back in the late 70s-early 80s. Though it was many years before my time, it was around during my childhood and was quite fun. _The Boxcar Children_ is also a real series, my favorite growing up, as well. Reading it to me as a tactic often employed to get me to calm down in my younger years...**

**Let me know your thoughts about the chapter and potential future for these guys.**


	7. More Than We Bargained For

**Disclaimer: Victorious and all of its associated copyrights are not my property and I stake no claim to them.**

**A/N: New characters? I like new characters.  
**

* * *

**Tori's POV**

Cat and I very quickly figured out there were certain things that never failed to smack us right across the face with the reality that we were wives of siblings. Yes, she's a wife now.

One, much like Jade and I in our own way, they were partners in crime. Being of the same blood, they had this weird telepathic connection that put Nikki and Julia to shame. One could tell when the other was doing nothing but cause trouble, and without hesitation, immediately jump in to join them. So basically, if you start getting shit from one of them, you better expect shit from the other as well.

Another was when they started swearing profusely, this in particular calls for one of two reactions. If it's at someone else, you best get to calling the police real quick. If it's at each other, they've probably been playing video games too long and need food or sex. Or both.

Usually both.

The last, and undoubtedly our favorite, was that the two still sometimes acted like bachelors. In the non-threatening way of sitting in their lazy-day clothes all day playing video games and eating pizza. For Cat, she enjoyed the whole Calvin Klein model thing Kevin had going on when he lounged in nothing but a pair of sweatpants or basketball shorts. As for me, well, in the case of mine and Jade's relationship regarding clothing, less is better.

As we made dinner one night, it became apparent that it seemed they were up to all three today. Last we checked they were both dressed in nothing but a pair of grey sweatpants and black cut-up t-shirts, with the usual PS3 controllers in hand. They'd been cursing out each other for at least the past 20 minutes over a game of F.E.A.R. 3.

I noticed a brief flash of white out of the corner of my eye and smiled. Another thing that had taken place in the month since we arrived home, aside from the wedding, was the 1 year anniversary gifts Jade and I got from Kevin and Cat. The gifts coming in the form of two, 3 month old kittens from separate litters, but had been close since birth because of their close proximity in the home they were rescued from.

The male, an entirely jet-black cat with rather intimidating bright green eyes, was Jade's, for obvious reasons. She named him Zorro, after the masked hero from the original _Mark of Zorro_ silent film. He immediately took a liking to her and rarely left her side, unless she was showering, in which case he hid under the bed until his master retreated from the offending droplets of evil. The female was mine, and like Zorro, she became very attached to me early on. She was an entirely white cat with piercing blue eyes, and unlike her companion, didn't usually shy away from water. I had named her Luna, as even though the name was typically given to black pets, it seemed to suit her personality, being the light in the darkness, so to speak.

Luna usually had a tendency to sit on the counter and watch me cook in the kitchen, or do my usual morning/night routines in the bathroom. Much like my wife, now that I think about it. Zorro usually perched himself on the back of the couch, just over Jade's shoulder, if he wasn't in her lap. Sometimes he'd just sit _on_ her shoulder if options were limited.

Our primary concerns when first bringing the kittens home was how Aero was going to react. Even though the dog practically shit sunshine and rainbows, we were surprised when he welcomed them just as warmly as the rest of us, after a sniffing party, allowing them to climb all over him and eventually sleep on his back. Some of the best pictures we'd ever gotten of the kittens were when they slept together, forming a yin yang shape with their bodies.

As Luna took her place on the counter next to the stove where I was tending to some chicken for our chicken parmesan dinner, Cat dipped her finger in some of the sauce and offered it to her, something we usually did as a joke to get an opinion. Based on her facial expressions, we'd see if she liked what we were cooking or not.

"She hates onion," I reminded her when Luna made a disgusted face, shaking her head violently.

"Yeah, well fuck you, my food is amazing," Cat muttered sassily, petting the kitten behind her ear before walking back over to her own pan.

I smiled and shook my head, leaning on the counter and sipping from my glass of Rum and Coke.

"HIDE BEHIND SOMETHING YOU FUCKING IMBECILE!"

Cat immediately put her hand over her mouth to suppress her laughter, giving me a look as if to say 'she's yours.'

I ran my fingers through my hair and shouted over to her, "Jade do I need to put you in timeout?"

It was silent for a moment before she sighed, "No."

"In my defense I was busy trying to pick up that gun that you STOLE FROM ME!" Kevin snapped back.

"Wow," I mumbled, "Imagine if they were like, 20 years younger and playing on Xbox Live."

She nearly choked on her own drink, "Oh my god. The scary thing is I can actually imagine that, _hide behind something or I'll fuck your mom!" _She imitated.

I silently cursed at her as I realized what she'd just done, a fact not lost on her.

"HAH! Get tea-bagged!" Kevin shouted.

Jade was quick to follow suit of her brother, "Suck my imaginary dick, bitch-ass clone soldiers!"

"You see what you do?" I groaned at Cat.

She just shook her head, looking embarrassed. We could vaguely hear the Wests laughing from the living room. After about 15 more minutes we finished up cooking dinner and were starting to eat as Cat looked through the band's social media, as she usually did about 200 times a day.

"Like half of the tags on SR is people linking all kinds of shit telling you guys to look," she mumbled, scrolling through Twitter on her tablet.

"What are they linking?" Jade asked curiously.

She shrugged, "YouTube videos and Tumblr posts, mostly. Hold on, I'll see what it is."

Cat tapped on one of the links, which lead to a YouTube video. She snorted when she read the title, "Top 10 cutest Jori moments from Vancouver Media interview."

"I'm surprised your fans were capable of narrowing it down to _just_ 10," Kevin mumbled.

"Considering I witness nearly every one of these every day, I'll skip that one. Let's see…here, someone posted something kinda interesting…"

I glanced at the screen over her shoulder, seeing a Tumblr post about the interview.

_**Is it just me or is it weird that we've heard about all of their parents, but never, not once has Kevin and Jade's mother been mentioned?**_

What disturbed me a bit was one of the responses.

_**Starting a petition to demand answers here. Fess up SR, inquiring minds want to know!**_

Kevin had also seen the posts, as he was on the other side of Cat. Jade didn't care to look, and it was probably a good thing.

"Don't know why they wanna know," Kevin muttered, "Ain't nothing special about her."

Cat shrugged, hitting the back button and continuing to look through posts, "Probably just curious."

We finished up our dinner and decided to end the night with a horror movie marathon. As I was up making some popcorn, my phone buzzed with a text. I glanced down at my phone and saw it was from my Dad.

_**Papi: Check your email.**_

I raised an eyebrow but did as he said, closing my texts and opening the email app, refreshing it and seeing a new unread email at the top from him. I opened the email and leaned on the counter.

_**Been investigating this for a few weeks, decided I should share it with you. Careful telling anyone.**_

It was the only thing he typed, the rest was links to various websites, which seemed to be news articles. As I skimmed through them, I was growing increasingly confused and angry. Multiple news websites had been investigating Jade and Kevin's past, and unfortunately started to turn up answers. The most frightening part was that people were trying to track down their mother, and from the articles, it seemed they were getting quite close to figuring out who she was. I sighed and left it alone, grabbing the popcorn and going back to the living room.

* * *

**No one's POV**

"So we decided we're gonna do this video in the vague hope you guys will drop this whole thing."

"Though that probably won't happen…" Jade grumbled, sipping from her beer.

Kevin sighed, irritated that they had to do this in the first place. Currently he was sitting on the couch next to his severely pissed off sister, trying to make a video. "So we've seen all the stuff you guys have posted. Yes, we do read all of it, we've just been hoping you'd eventually stop bothering with the subject, but obviously you won't until you have answers, so…"

Jade cut him off there, "Alright, I'm not gonna pussyfoot around this because I don't want to hear about this _ever_. The woman who birthed my brother and I is not a person I'd want anyone to know. Don't try to find her, because you won't like it. She's a cruel and heartless bitch and I'm glad she's gone."

Kevin nodded, "In less harsh words, she's a painful memory, and we'd really appreciate it if you guys didn't bring it up anymore. Though if you feel inclined to do so, tell her about how successful my baby sister's become. Mention the kickass house we've got with our good friends, our wildly successful international tour, her hot wife, all of it. Oh, and if you give her one of our t-shirts, we'll tell Oxford to change the definition of 'awesome' to your name."

At that point Zorro finally made his presence known by climbing up onto Jade's shoulder and casually sitting there, waving his tail back and forth. Kevin chuckled and shook his head, "Yeah, this is Zorro, Jade's new kitten that thinks he's a parrot."

Tori and Cat finally came upstairs from where they had been cleaning up the music room a bit. They both sat next to their West and Luna immediately made herself comfortable in Tori's lap.

"And the ladies join the party. By the way," Kevin motioned to Luna and Zorro with their masters, "Cat and I got those little fluffs for their one-year anniversary. Yeah we were like 6 months late but shit happens."

"Speaking of shit, it's your turn to clean out the litterbox," Tori said to Jade.

Jade cringed, "No…"

Tori thought for a moment before taking out her phone, quickly typing something, and showing it to Jade. As soon as Jade read it she sighed, "Fine."

Kevin snorted, glancing back at the camera, "They tend to barter chores."

"I need some pizza," Cat mumbled as she laid back and put her feet up in Kevin's lap.

"We all do, babe. But anyway since this video's already ridiculously long we'll cut it off here. One last thing though, to all the people with shitty parents, I want you to take a good look at my sister and see what you can do if you stick to your guns."

Jade smirked slightly, "Just keep doin' what you love and you'll get where you wanna go. And by that I mean keep at the hobbies you love, not like, doing people…You know unless that's what you like to do, then more power to you."

"Thanks for the clarification," Tori mumbled.

Cat jumped up and climbed over the back of the couch, pushing Jade and Tori together, "KISS FOR EMPHASIS!"

"Need pizza and beer," Kevin concluded, standing up to turn off the camera. He glanced back and saw his wife now lying in the laps of both his sister and sister-in-law, all of them laughing. He just shook his head with a smile, taking his phone out of his pocket and walking to the kitchen to call for pizza.

"Sometimes I think Cat ships us harder than we ship ourselves," Tori muttered to her wife.

"Sometimes I think she needs professional help," Jade growled, finally managing to get Cat off of her lap.

Tori hopped up and went over to the TV, switching the HDMI cable to the blu-ray player and looking through the folders of the flash drive plugged into it, finally selecting one, "I think we need some music."

With that said, she clicked play on the first song in the playlist, being _I Heard it's the Softest Thing Ever _by A Day To Remember. About a minute in when the clean vocals finally came in, Jade began singing the song nearly perfectly, since it was one of her favorites.

The family always enjoyed it when the kid delivering their pizza recognized them and asked for autographs. It was even more amusing when hours later they'd check their twitter and see themselves tagged in a post with a picture showing whatever they'd signed along with the kid freaking out about meeting them. Their favorite moment was about two weeks ago, when a kid asked for autographs but didn't have anything to sign, so they just signed his arm with a sharpie, only to find out a few days later the kid had the autographs traced over with a tattoo, permanently leaving them there. They thought it was so cool they ended up sending him some free merch and giving a shout out in one of their videos.

This time was a little different, as Kevin opened the door, he saw a girl about the age of 16 or 17 standing with a smile on her face, holding their pizzas.

"How much do I owe you?" He asked, retrieving his wallet from his pocket.

"Umm," she checked the receipt, "$27.05."

He checked his money and frowned, turning around to shout back inside, "Hey Jade, you got a 10 I can borrow?"

A moment later Tori joined him by the door, handing him a 10 dollar bill, "She's busy trying to layer shots with Cat."

Kevin shook his head and laughed as the young girl looked amused, "Never imagined I'd be tasked with delivering pizza to my favorite band ever first day on the job."

"Favorite, huh?" Tori asked, leaning on the door frame.

"Yeah, I've been a fan since you guys first started playing over at Pierce. My sister attended a concert a few years ago, back when it was just four of you, been hooked ever since. I practically idolize Jade." She paused a moment to take and count the money from Kevin as he took the pizzas and brought them inside.

"Keep the change," he added over his shoulder.

Tori smiled at the girl, "Jade's your favorite, huh?"

She nodded enthusiastically, "She's given me tons of inspiration for my own music. I've been trying to learn guitar lately but it's been difficult on my own."

"You wanna meet her?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

The girl's ecstatic look was all the answer she needed. "Wait here," Tori said as she walked back into the house. A few seconds later Tori came back with Jade by her side and a small white kitten in her arms. "Might wanna make it quick, Jade hasn't eaten in maybe…2 hours…"

Jade glared at her wife, "I don't need your sass, woman."

After glancing at the girl's name tag, Jade spoke to her, "So, Michelle, big fan I hear."

Michelle nodded, "Yeah, I've been following you guys for years!"

Tori left them to it after that, jumping on the couch next to Kevin and grabbing a piece of pizza. After a few minutes Jade came back, making herself comfortable next to Tori and getting a slice for herself.

"So…?" Tori prompted.

Jade shrugged, washing down her mouthful of pizza with a drink of beer, "18 year old kid trying to make enough money to pay for college, also trying to learn guitar since one of my songs gave her inspiration."

Kevin raised an eyebrow, "And?"

"Asked for an autograph and I gave her one, and I may or may not have given her a card with the number of a local music store that gives lessons."

"Carlo's?" Tori asked curiously, "That place is crazy expensive."

Jade nodded, "Yeah, told her to talk to Carlo and not worry about the cost. Remind me I need to call him and pay for the sessions in advance."

"Aww," Tori cooed, hugging her wife, "You're the sweetest."

Kevin laughed and shook his head, "Why?"

"Seemed like a good kid with admirable dreams and you know I'm an avid supporter of the arts."

A moment later Kevin's phone rang, and he wiped his hands off on a napkin before answering, "Hey Ben, what's up? Pretty late over there, isn't it?"

The girls watched him curiously as he listened to Ben before he nodded, "Oh, that's pretty cool. Yeah there's no rush, nothing planned for a few weeks…Sure, alright man take care, talk to you later."

"How're they doing?" Tori asked.

"Out pretty late visiting some of Julia and Nikki's family, said that they'll be in Birmingham a while longer."

Cat plucked a piece of sausage off of the slice of pizza Kevin was holding, tossing it in her mouth, "ETA coming back home?"

Kevin shrugged, "They don't know. Seems the twins want to stay as long as possible, and Aero seems to like Birmingham."

"I almost miss that dog," Tori looked at her wife curiously, who immediately reminded her, "_Almost_."

* * *

_**4 months later, early March**_

**Tori's POV  
**

"You just couldn't wait, could you?"

Cat paused her frantic pacing to give me the evil eye, "This is _not_ my fault!"

I sighed, leaning back against the mirror behind the bathroom counter, "Do you think they're going to kill us?"

Cat hopped up onto the counter next to me, laying her head on my shoulder, "Probably."

We sat in silence for a while until we heard the notification sound from my phone. I picked it up and turned the alarm off as I mentally prepared myself. Cat gave me a gentle nudge and a smile of encouragement, "At least she can't be mad at you."

I jumped down off of the counter just as her phone buzzed as well. She exhaled heavily, running her fingers through her hair as she stood next to me. We both picked up our magic little sticks, holding them face down and glancing at each other.

"Same time?"

"Same time," I agreed.

A moment later after she nodded we both turned them over, mumbling the exact same thing.

"Pregnant."

The silence following was almost unbearable, both of us just staring at the pregnancy tests in our hands and probably thinking up every single possible way this could end badly.

She laughed, "So I guess that procedure you guys did actually worked."

I shrugged, sitting down on the floor against the cabinets, tossing the test in the wastebasket and leaning my head back, "I told her it didn't work. I was so sure it didn't work. What the hell am I supposed to say now?"

"Whatever you say is probably gonna go over better than what I say."

"Are you kidding me? Kevin's probably gonna be stoked at the very least. Bypassing a condom and a morning-after pill? He'll think you're birthing a superhero."

Cat smiled slightly, "Guess you're right, Jade's the big obstacle here." She sat down next to me, studying the floor, "She always told me how much she never wanted a kid, never told me why, but she was so adamant on not having one. But she agreed to it, so it's not like she can say she didn't want it now."

I sighed, glancing over at her, "You wanna tell them now?"

"Might as well, last I checked they were playing Super Smash Bros on the old Gamecube."

She stood up and offered a hand to me, "Come on."

I followed her out of the bathroom after we both washed our hands. True to what she said, the siblings were sitting side-by-side on the couch focusing on a game of Super Smash Bros. Cat looked at me expectantly, and I just tucked my hands in my pockets nervously, "Can we talk to you guys for a minute?"

Cat and I almost laughed when both hit the pause button at the same time, negating both actions and making the game continue anyway. They glared at each other and paused the game, putting the controllers down as Kevin nodded, "What's up?"

Jade raised a curious eyebrow, "Why do you two look so guilty?"

"Remember that procedure we got done a few weeks ago?" I started.

"I thought it didn't work?"

I shrugged, smiling sheepishly, "It did."

Kevin patted her shoulder with a big grin, "You're gonna be a mama, kiddo."

"And Kevin," Cat said, making him look back at her, "You're gonna be a daddy."

"Really guys? At the same time?" Jade whined, "Are you _trying_ to kill us?"

"Blame her," I pointed at Cat.

Cat scoffed, pointing at Kevin, "Blame him!"

"We need to talk," Jade interrupted, standing up and pulling me into our bedroom.

As soon as the door closed I immediately began babbling, "If you don't want to keep it anymore that's fine, I don't want you to feel pressured into anything and-"

I was cut off by Jade roughly pushing me onto the bed and climbing on top of me. At my curious look, she just shrugged, already picking at the buttons on my shirt, "I agreed to this, didn't I?"

"I guess but Cat said…" I trailed off as she seemed to stiffen a bit, her fingers pausing on one button.

She looked back up at me, the pain in her eyes clear as day, "I always told Cat I never wanted a kid of my own, but I never told her why. Kevin so far is the only person who knows why, and he always told me that the fear was irrational, and that's why I agreed. Mind you I never would've agreed had it been with someone else, but you always seem to make me break every rule I put in place for myself." She sighed, "I never wanted a kid because I was always afraid of being like my mother was to me. I was afraid that I'd be the cause of another human growing up the way I did, always being in fear that every single thing I did would be ridiculed, then have it actually happen. It was a terrifying thought to me."

I smiled, running my fingers through her hair and pulling her close to me, kissing her reassuringly, "You won't be anything like her. You'll be a trillion times better and then some. But, if it makes you feel any better, I promise to smack you if you do something stupid."

"So basically our relationship now?" She asked teasingly.

"Pretty much. Now can you do this in less than 5 minutes? I'd like to have dinner."

"Is that a challenge?"

"Yes."

* * *

**A/N: Truthfully...I didn't make up Zorro and Luna. Those two are based off of two kittens I recently rescued from an abusive household. Zorro is my little buddy, actually named off of the main protagonist from the old silent film _Mark of Zorro_, and Luna immediately took a liking to my girlfriend. Both descriptions of their appearances and names are true to the actual kittens, and despite being from separate litters, they love each other.**

**Also, just a side note, I did some research on the band _Halestorm_, which is one of the bands I compared these guys to in the first story. Let it be known that I didn't know this when I created this story, but the makeup of that band is almost identical to the one in this story. The lead singer (Lzzy Hale) is in a relationship with the lead guitarist (Joe Hottinger), and Lzzy's brother (Arejay Hale) is the drummer. Check out their music, they're awesome.**


End file.
